Aphorisms

APHORISMS, maxims or axioms:
I bought a new pair of glasses last week & I see so much better - the only trouble is when I look in the mirror they give me such a lousy complexion.
On Writing:
You can't be taught to write it's only something you can learn.
“I remember everything in the past– even if it didn’t happen.” (Mark Twain)
Look, you have to believe me, I tell lies – about everything - and that’s the truth. (Damian Runyan)
Awareness and imagination are the principal tools in any writers toolbox. (Flannery O’Connor)
Those who would like to write should be thoroughly discouraged, only those who have to write need encouragement. (TS Eliot)
A vivid imagination is the cheapest mode of travel.
A cliché is often a discarded truism.
I admit I only set out to describe not to understand the human psyche.
The Arts Industry: The ones who make a better living out of our art than we do.
ON PHILOSOPHY:
The desert submerges the trees. The trees fail to submerge the desert.
The greatest wisdom is to keep an open mind.
Those who are reluctant to govern make better rulers than those who are eager to govern. (Socrates)
It’s not God that’s the problem it’s those who believe absolutely.
The simple is as much complex as the complex is simple.
If you say something is impossible you are more likely to be wrong than if you say anything is possible. (Arthur C Clark)
The difference between a snob and a discriminator is that a snob relies on ignorance to judge whereas a discriminator discriminates.
Half full or half empty depends on whether you talking about petrol or a vintage wine.
OR: Who cares anyway?
I think therefore I am. (Decarte)
I am, therefore I think. (Decarte’s wife)
The meaning of life ... is the life you lead
To accomplish something of worth for its own sake creates the metaphoric soundlessness of one hand clapping.
The pessimist believes there is no point in action because all is lost, whereas the optimist believes no action is necessary because things always come out okay. It is only through the combination of a pessimistic outlook and an optimist act that change will come about.
Only through sacrifice comes redemption. (Source unknown)
GENERAL:
When there are two ways to proceed that are equally as bad as the other there is no choice, only the sufferance of the one thing or the other.
The Mobile phone culture: an often a meaningless mobile chatter that speaks mostly of either isolation or self-importance.
Reality is your reality, my reality, even unreality.
The only difference between a miracle and a mystery is that the former is considered solved whereas the latter is not.
I started off with nothing and I’ve still got most of it left. (Overheard in a Laundromat)
Talking without thought is like singing without a tune.
Advice to give to an extra-terrestrial: Go home the earth is full. (NET)
You are depriving some village of an idiot. (Overheard during a road rage incident)
The suburbs: A bevy of silver TV arrows pointing towards their godhead.
My greatest ambition is to sit on the moon one evening and watch the earth rise. (Nasser Astronaut.)
I’m not really short I just know a lot of very tall people. (Overheard, Salamanca)
You live a bit and you learn a bit but you don’t live long enough to know very much.
Too many people live in a forest and never see a tree and others see a tree and not the forest.
Death is the aphrodisiac for living (Philip Adams):
The Da Vinci Code :A little ancient clay pot with a paper inside that says: Wrong way idiot, go back.
If you haven’t found more in your mind than you thought there was, then you really haven’t tried.
When you’re wrong about something you have the chance to advance your knowledge.
ON PSYCHOLOGY:
While there is life there is hope and while there is hope there is life.
‘Naïve is a word that people who don’t care about things, use to describe people who do.’ (Ethan Black.)
Moderation in all things, even moderation in moderation. (Neil Hackett)
If ego is the head driver, it shouldn’t have a license.
Save yourself a trip to India: Be your own Guru., (‘GEE YOU ARE YOU’)
Ambivalent? Well, yes and no! (NET)
Without compromise all things remain static.
I’m sure of nothing and surprised by nothing, (Gerald Durral)
It is only the moral self that keeps the moral order.
ON OLD AGE:
The older you get the more like yourself you become. ( Zen?)
AND: The older you get the fewer things are worthy of discussion.
AND: A hot shower solves many problems.
AND: The most heated conversation one can expect after being house bound is with your TV.
AND: Just because you can’t find something, it doesn’t mean it’s not there.
AND: The time comes when testosterone fades that the exchange of bodily fluids loses its appeal.
ON MEMORY:
Oldies can’t remember names and nouns, There is a name for this condition but few oldies can remember what it is.
AND: If you remain calm when all else is panic, perhaps you haven’t got your hearing aid turned on.
AND: When you walk along the shopping centre you smile at all the oldies in case you know them, and they smile back in case they know you.
AND: Don’t worry that you forgot my name. I forgot yours too. (NET)
AND: I bought pills to help with my memory but I keep forgetting to take them. (Overheard in a chemist shop)
QUESTIONS:
POETS have no place in a perfect world.
Is there such a thing as un-natural talent?
Fundamental Islam: If there were 72 virgins in paradise awaiting the suicide bombers, how would you feel if you were 73rd?
Do we cry for others or do we cry for ourselves?
Who are you in your dream? Have you ever seen yourself in a dream? Or do you just imagine yourself in a dream? You are looking out but never in, you don’t see yourself, so who or what is it you are in your dream? Do you have a specific age? Or are you simply an ageless essence of all your time before and after your earthly birth? Perhaps it is your very soul you are glimpsing?
ON SEMANTICS;
Sentiment belongs to the past because it is mainly about the loss of something or the regret that we didn’t ever find the love we were seeking.
Romance belongs to the present - an idealistic act directed towards someone you love. If reciprocated we know happiness and if not reciprocated it also falls into the tearful arms of sentiment.

Or then again, perhaps it is all just a load of cods wallop.