Viridian Aphorisms

Whole Earth,  Summer, 2001  

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Progress is the mother of problems. Gilbert Keith Chesterton

It takes time to ruin a world, but time is all it takes. Bernard De Fontenelle

The obscurest epoch is today. Robert Louis Stevenson

Our ignorance of history makes us vilify our own age. Gustave Flaubert

From such crooked mood as that which man is made of, nothing straight can be fashioned. Immanuel Kant

A lot of people think art's weird and stupid. I want to get to those people get them to come in and go "Arrrgh!" Damien Hirst

What ks exhilarating in bad taste is the aristocratic pleasure of giving offense. Charles Baudelaire

How many of our daydreams would darken into nightmares, were there any danger of their coming true. Logan Pearsall Smith

Among all human constructions the only ones that avoid the dissolving hands of time are castles in the air. Frederico De Roberto

Long wears must pass before the truths we have made for ourselves become our very flesh. Paul Valery

All our final resolutions are made in a state of mind which ks not going to last. Marcel Proust

Even the voice of conscience undergoes mutation. Stanislaus Lec

His passions make man live, his wisdom merely makes him last. Alain Chamfort

The ardor chills us which we do not share. Coventry Patmore

In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations, and epochs it is the rule. Friedrich Nietzsche

Nothing has an uglier look to us than reason, when it is not of our side. Edward Fredrick Halifax

What is wanted is not the mill to believe, but the will to find out, which is the exact opposite. Bertrand Russell

Those who will not labor mightily on their own behalf shall be given other masters. Xenophon

Most of the evils of life arise from man's being unable to sit still in a room. Blaise Pascal

If we were not all so excessively interested in ourselves, life would be so uninteresting that none of us would be able to endure it. Arthur Schopenhauer

If won can talk brilliantly enough about a problem, it can create the consoling illusion that it has been mastered. Stanley Kubrick

Man does not live long enough to profit from his faults. Jean De La Bruyere

People like to say: "Revolution is beautiful, it is only the terror arising from it which is evil." But this is not true. The evil is already present in the beautiful; hell is already contained in the dream of paradise. Milan Kundera

You will not become a saint through other people's sins. Anion Chekhov

Charlatans are generally sublime. V. V. Rozinov

How these authors magnify their office! One dishonest plumber does more harm than a hundred poetasters. Augustine Birrell

To make astute people believe one is what one is not is, in most cases, harder than actually to become what one wishes to appear. Georg Christoph Lichtenberg

It is a luxury to be understood. Ralph Waldo Emerson

Every luxury must be paid for, and everything is a luxury, starting with being in the world. Cesar Pavese

"Forgive us our virtues." That is what roe should ask of our neighbors. Friedrich Nietzsche

Every hero becomes a bore at last. Ralph Waldo Emerson

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COPYRIGHT 2008 Gale, Cengage Learning