Farnam Street recently posted a list of some of their favourite aphorisms from Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s Maxims and Reflections, a man “brilliant at distilling complex questions and concepts into simple, reflective statements“. Below are some of mine.
An aphorism is “a concise, terse, laconic, and/or memorable expression of a general truth or principle.”
2. How can a man come to know himself? Never by thinking, but by doing. Try to do your duty and you will know at once what you are worth.
I feel that I’m too much of a thinker and not enough of a doer. I also haven’t figured out what’s my duty yet. Definitely things to work on.
7. Tell me with whom you associate, and I will tell you who you are. If I know what your business is, I know what can be made of you.
This one is a popular saying in Spain, ‘Dime con quién andas y te diré quien eres.’
19. It is only men of practical ability, knowing their powers and using them with moderation and prudence, who will be successful in worldly affairs.
65. Generosity wins favor for every one, especially when it is accompanied by modesty.
130. Hatred is active displeasure, envy passive. We need not wonder that envy turns so soon to hatred.
143. No one should desire to live in irregular circumstances; but if by chance a man falls into them, they test his character and show how much determination he is capable of.
This has been clear to me during illness, injury and loss.
152. Ingratitude is always a kind of weakness. I have never known men of ability to be ungrateful.
162. There are people who make no mistakes because they never wish to do anything worth doing.
231. Nothing is more terrible than ignorance in action.
239. To live in a great idea means to treat the impossible as though it were possible. It is just the same with a strong character; and when an idea and a character meet, things arise which fill the world with wonder for thousands of years.
264. A man’s manners are the mirror in which he shows his portrait.
278. Difficulties increase the nearer we come to our aim.
324. It is not enough to know, we must also apply; it is not enough to will, we must also do.
Very much like number 2.
332. Nothing is more highly to be prized than the value of each day.
This one reminds me of my friend Justin who’s motto is ‘win the day‘.
485. There is no surer way of evading the world than by Art; and no surer way of uniting with it than by Art.
529. We more readily confess to errors, mistakes and shortcomings in our conduct than in our thought.
I think it’s also worth remembering Susan Sontag’s criticism about aphorisms in As Consciousness Is Harnessed to Flesh. She warns of the dangers of simplifying and reducing complexity into soundbites which may discourage critical thinking and prevent informed conversations.
My Excerpts 