Aphorisms

A P H O R I S M S

As many truths in as few words as possible

Oct 12, 2023 | Last Updated: Oct 19, 2024

Autonomy

There is no best way to go, but there is a worst way: to follow. Learn from others, lead yourself.

Reverence, never deference.

Nothing you want will feed you, so don't feed your wanting. And everything you need, beyond sustenance and safety, you will only find within you.

My thoughts are not me.

Expect nothing from the world and the world of yourself.

You guarantee your fate by believing it; every prophesy that comes true is self-fulfilling.

Stagnation is evil, but stillness is essential.

Love your home not for what it gives you but for where it dares you to go.

See the world through the eyes of a lamb, but walk through it like a wolf.

Man is poisoned by the habit of self-delusion, and the only antidote is introspection.

Humanity

We each have an illimitable essence; the primary characteristic of man is his ineffability.

Somnio, ergo sum homo. Homo sum, ergo somnio.

Masculine energy is in the world. Feminine energy is of the world.

Suffering is a fact of life, and life is how you respond to the fact.

Meaning

You can't retrieve anything from emptiness, but you can fill it. Fill it with meaning.

Go to church for the sermon, not for salvation.

I exist in service to no one other than the highest conceivable version of my self.

God is the self idealized, and I am God unrealized.

The path towards whatever lies beyond is through the pitch-dark abyss at the core of my center-less self, within which there is a kernel of clear light.

Mortality

Birth is a leap, and death is a landing. Living can either feel like falling or flying.

Life is the whole cake. Living is the icing.

We humans have these infinite concepts of what could be, yet we are stuck in the finite concrete of reality.

In the course of my life, I will spend hours contemplating suicide, so that I don't consider it for a second.

Today is heavy because it's all you're guaranteed. Today is light because you have the freedom to determine tomorrow.

A day is a life, and sleep is practice for death.

Truth

The ego is truth-averse; it seeks only comfort.

It's funny how far certainty catapults us from the truth.

Be an intellectual nomad; don't dwell in dogma.

The only way to end your education is to become a know-it-all or a can't-learn-at-all. To keep learning, you need a paradoxical blend of intellectual humility and confidence: "I know nothing. I can learn anything."

Change is the only certainty. To be certain of anything else is to be in denial of change.

A life lived in pursuit of Truth is one lived unreconciled.

Creativity

To reveal something about the forest, write about a leaf.

Stillness is a prerequisite for creativity; ideas come from aimlessness.

The heart holds your darlings. The head hunts them.

The mind moves best if the body has already.

If you want your message to be remembered, edit it for meter as much as meaning.

An exceptional editor doesn't just offer a better word; he intuits the word that the author intends but has yet to find.

Writing is an act of the ego. Editing is the opposite.

Relationships

Say what you know is unsaid.

Give unsolicited praise and criticism upon request.

Remember: People don't know what they mean to you. You have to tell them.

Sacrifice is a vice; the virtue is devotion.

A relationship ought to supplement your individuality, not supplant it.

"Casual sex" is an oxymoron.

Love is not "all you need." It's just one thing you can't do without.

Endeavor to understand, not to be understood.

Express gratitude, and don't expect it.

Ambition

Success comes from repeated failure. If you want fertile soil, mix in manure.

Material success is misunderstood as a prerequisite for contentment. Contentment can emerge from any moment spent moving toward the immaterial objects of your ambition.

Do, do, do, then detach.

Venture to the mountain tops, but live in the valley.

Satisfaction, or dissatisfaction, is the difference between expectation and reality.

The only path to greener grass is to tend to your lawn.

Cherish the middle-moments, because most of life happens between where you were and where you're going. Very little of life is arriving.

There's only one reason to give up something good: to go for something better. The problem is that you don't know how good it is until it's gone.

This too shall pass, so enjoy it while it lasts.

Raise your floor, not just your ceiling.

What do I want to reap tomorrow? is the same question as What must I sow today?