Selected aphorisms, from Signposts to Elsewhere:
Miracles are proud creatures; they will not reveal themselves to those who do not Believe.
~
If Love, as they say, is blind then, Lust must be deaf, dumb and blind.
~
Temptation: seeds we are forbidden to water, that are showered with rain.
~
In life, as in love, graceful leave-taking is the epitome of gratitude.
~
Myths are history, too; the history of the human imagination.
~
History does not repeat itself, human nature does.
~
Our wisdom always mocks us, since it knows more than we can.
~
The thoughts we choose to act upon define us to others, the ones we do not define us to ourselves.
~
It is wise to know oneself, if only to add to the sum of human knowledge.
~
Impulses we attempt to strangle only develop stronger muscles.
~
The biographer’s art is that of confessing through the mask of another’s personality.
~
In life, as in love, graceful leave-taking is the epitome of gratitude.
~
To better appreciate our parameters, we must act as though all were permitted.
~
Looking death in the eye is like staring into the sun; for a while, you see its impression everywhere, stare too long and you see nothing else.
~
The notion of family is merely a comforting fallacy. In truth, there are only relative strangers.
~
Performing human tricks, daily, is the consequence of a lifetime of animal training.
~
Liar: one who claims to tell the truth, always.
~
The harshest critics are those denied access to the work; it is the same with life’s critics.
~
Time forbids attachments. Clinging to a particular time is courting madness.
~
Modernism is to literature what Existentialism is to philosophy: a state of emergency.
~
Intuition: generous deposits made to our account by an unknown benefactor.
~
Marrying for looks is like buying books for their pictures – a good idea, if one cannot read.
~
The extraordinary live, and die, to enlighten and entertain the ordinary.
~
Two things that stain the mind long after they have stained the hands: blood and newspapers.
~
The danger in holding one’s reins too tightly is that if the spirit does not rear in revolt, it will bleed to death in harness.
~
The animal does not lie beneath the thin layer of our skin, but beneath the thin layer of our clothes.
~
Nations are like families; in time, it is difficult to see their virtues for their vices.
~
Advice is almost always given by those who should not speak, to those who could not listen.
~
That it is shallow to judge by appearances is a well-known saying, that it is shallow to dismiss appearances is a lesser-known truth.
~
Popularity takes the mediocre to her bed.
~
Astrology: a pseudo-science that postulates that the world does not revolve around us, the universe does.
~
Tattoo: graffiti upon a masterpiece.
~
When someone says they don’t look their age, it usually means they don’t act it.
~
A little suspicion is petty, a great suspicion philosophic.
~
Great thinkers are not less confused than the common person, they are more profoundly confused.
–Yahia Lababidi
Yahia Lababidi is a young Egytpian-born poet living in Fort Lauderdale. He recently won international recognition in November when several of his original aphorisms–published in his first book, Signposts to Elsewhere–appeared in James Geary’s Encyclopedia of The World’s Great Aphorisms.
Yahia’s website
Copyright ©2008 Spinozablue and Yahia Lababidi. All rights reserved.