Epigrams, Aphorisms & Maxims

Epigrams in quotes are authored by the people named alongside.
Epigrams marked “Pop” are modified popular quips or riddles.
The rest are mine, as are all the interpretations and comments.
Many of my favourite aphorisms come from Bertrand Russell, quoted here.

7a. “One man's constant is another man's variable” (Alan J Perlis)

I think this was meant to apply only to computer science, but how true it is
of life in general! - especially when rephrased: “One man's constant is another
woman's variable” (or vice versa - see aphorism #22).

7b. “It's possible to make up your mind, but impossible to make up
      two minds”


8. History teaches us that no one ever learns the lessons of history

In particular, the leaders of important nations such as the USA and the UK never
seem to learn the simplest and most fundamental lessons of the recent past. This
epigram has appeared in various versions, ever since Hegel's original formulation:
"What experience and history teaches us is that people and governments have never
learned anything from history, or acted on principles deduced from it”.

9a. Religion starts with belief, philosophy with doubt

The hallmark of religion is an unquestioning belief and faith in the incredible,
while that of philosophy is doubt even about what most of us would regard as
certainties. This epigram isn’t literally true: religion invariably starts with
indoctrination. (Also see 55.)

9b. "Philosophy is questions that may never be answered. Religion
      is answers that may never be questioned." (Anon)


10. Truth before God, God before Scriptures

If there’s a God (whatever that means), he will be revealed by reasoned
consideration of empirical facts, not from the fantasies of ancient scriptures.
(Also see #52)

11. Philosophy is divided by truth, the world by lies

Philosophers are separated primarily by their various concepts of truth.
The masses are separated by the different myths they believe in.

11b. People are divided chiefly by their ignorance and stupidity


12. "All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second,
      it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident."
      (Arthur Schopenhauer)


13. “Morality is truth in full bloom” (Victor Hugo, Les Miserables)

The basis of morality is truth recognition; the flowering of morality is a full life
in harmony with truth.

14. “Man has no nobler function than to defend the truth”
      (Ruth McKenney)

Well, first he has to find out how to recognise the truth, or else he may be defending
lies and nonsense. Half the world's people believe they are defenders of "the truth",
but really they have no concept of truth and defend only what they've been told.

15a. "When a well-packaged web of lies has been sold gradually to the
      masses over generations, the truth will seem utterly preposterous
      and its speaker a raving lunatic." (Dresden James)


15b. "You can't handle the truth!" (A few good men)

This applies to virtually everybody, and the truths which they deny range from the very
general (e.g. that God, equality and natural rights are delusions) to the many specific
issues they face in their marriages and family lives.

16a. The strength of truth is no greater than the strength of a sign, but...

Language is the limiting factor in conveying true information. No truth can be
told without it, every truth consists only in what can be said.

16b. ...“the truth is in here” (Pop)

Even without words, there’s a sense of truth in the way we interact with the world,
the way our non-verbal knowledge corresponds to reality. We learn to recognise
objects, places and other people, and to relate to them appropriately - to eat
certain things and shun others, to drink water and avoid fire etc. It’s primarily
a question of survival. If we’re no good at it, if we’re easily deceived, we’re goners
or no-hopers. If “truth” eludes us, so does life.

17a. No-one is equal to anyone, but...

People are unequal in terms of those qualities and values that contribute to
their humanity.

17b. ...“some are more equal than others”!
      (George Orwell, Animal Farm)

I've annexed this to draw attention especially to the third
world and the severely disadvantaged (stimulated by a
photograph of starving Ethiopian children, similar to this
one). Their equality lies in their misery (see #40).

This seems to be common, if not normal, in western society. It means the blokes have to
make unacceptable compromises, because their brains are wired so differently: generally
speaking, their models of reason, honesty, justice, needs, economics, humour etc are
completely at variance with the woman's (NB not necessarily better or worse, just different).
Even in most Asian and Middle Eastern cultures, where the man unquestionably wears
the pants, the woman often takes control of domestic affairs - though usually by
devious means - perhaps justifiably, considering her circumstances (See this very important
document: Women in an Insecure World. If the link doesn’t work in your browser, copy
this url to your address bar: http://www.unicef.org/emerg/files/women_insecure_world.pdf).

.

The ability to perceive objects depends on an a priori ability to form concepts.

It’s unlikely that a creature without a conceiving brain could be said to feel pain.
(Beware of drawing specific conclusions! While it might seem obvious that human beings
feel pain and bacteria don't, scientific studies increasingly suggest that animals quite
low down the evolutionary scale both feel pain and have some conceptual abilities.)

Religion, in particular the belief in redemption of sins, undermines personal
responsibility and authorises wrongdoing.

This typifies the injustice of religion, the superiority of man’s morality over God’s,
and the utter wretchedness and degeneracy of stooping to the latter.

If a person tells you that a load of patent nonsense is actually the absolute truth, why
should you believe anything else he says?

If a person behaves ridiculously (or even dangerously) in the execution of his
beliefs, why should you trust him to act sensibly at other times?

Those who take their beliefs seriously and unconditionally invite disaster.

The perpetrators of theological nonsense frequently bring conflict and war.

There are competitions for men and women, for the able and the disabled, because
we recognise the superiority of men and of the able-bodied in sport. But if we
dissolved these classes, we would still be guilty of discrimination on the grounds of
refusing the underprivileged a fair chance. It’s amusing to observe how these values
are reversed in many real-life situations. Facetious (?) questions - Why no Olympics
for the overweight, the short, the elderly, the unfit... or swimmers with feet less than
size 12? Why no Olympics for countries that spend less than $100,000 preparing
each athlete? Why no Olympics for users of performance enhancing drugs? -
considering so many athletes obviously think this is an acceptable practice - and is
it really more hazardous than some of the other techniques they might employ, or
more shameful than some of the other “unfair” advantages they might possess?
(Of course, the real value of the games is that they transcend most of this stuff,
as well as the animosity between nations. This is especially true of the Paralympics,
where athletes with all manner of disabilities compete. See my abysmal
Olympic song lyrics for a more "Australian" outlook!)

The most basic aspects of culture form the backbone of society, so mixed cultures
cannot peacefully coexist in a single society. One society means one culture
(in the deep sense of “culture”).

This is one meaning of “cultural diversity” I think we can all live happily with!

While I fully agree with the sentiment behind this little joke, I can think of several other
presidents who would make better fish food.

This isn’t consistent with some of Ghandi’s other sayings about god, nor
with most other people’s notions of god, but it’s not a bad epigram. It gets
rid of god, in any of the ordinary senses, and implies that everyone has
their own "god" stuck somewhere in their brain.

The true philosopher cannot afford to ignore the plight of third-world and displaced people.

Anyone know who first wrote these lines, which occur in Marley, Beenie Man and possibly other
songs? Are Marley's words actually “Give them yard...”? - maybe, after all, denoting the shared
yard around a group of shacks - an important element in the lives of poorer Kingstonians and
frequently the cause of heated disputes. (For a good answer to the first question, see Footnote)

I don't support the current concept of marriage - legally it's too weak, ethically too mixed up.
What would you make of Diana's plight?

Have you noticed how many TV presenters begin every other sentence with “now”?
The trend began five or six years ago among female presenters, mainly in cooking
and DIY programs on one or two channels, but has since spread to the men, all
channels and virtually all general interest programs (travel, real estate, gardening etc).
I find this over-use of the word as irritating as it is pointless.

This might not be absolutely true, but it makes an important point about the
meaning of “meaning”. (Of course I'm assuming “now” is used correctly,
not in the manner of TV presenters!)

In Australia, the only qualification you need to become a politician is to be able
to say "Ay", as in "This is ay catastrophe of significant proportions and will
have ay considerable impact on the economy, tut tut".

What avoiding political correctness does not entail! .....

Because of its 3-dimensionality, space carries more information than time.

The opposite view - and perhaps the only other one that currently makes much
sense - is that I own the universe and there there are no "real" specks outside
myself.  Neither view is particularly gracious towards other people.

(Because it implies deceit, subterfuge and unhealthy international relations).

Like this list of epigrams, most things in life have no real ending. Apart
from life itself, we draw things arbitrarily to a close. The quote comes
from the end (?) of Fats Waller’s inimitable “Big Chief De Sota” (De Sota
has no end!).
Here are some related epigrams:

“Too many pieces of music finish too long after the end” (Stravinsky)
“This war, like the next war, is a war to end war” (Lloyd George)
“Time is a great teacher, but unfortunately it kills all its pupils” (Berlioz)
“In this world, nothing is certain but death and taxes” (Franklin)