PART THREE:
APHORISMS (MAXIMS)
81
Evil is the
root of all goodness.
82
The truth
of an obsession is the illusion of free-will.
83
Where men
of similar capabilities are concerned the man just past his prime is naturally
inferior to the one just approaching it.
84
Sleep is
our natural drug.
85
Women teach
men the true value of man just as men teach women the true value of woman.
86
Just as man
represents the positive principle of life without being entirely positive, so
woman represents its negative principle without being entirely negative. A creature who was entirely the one thing or
the other would be unable to exist.
87
Procreation
is a virtue of 'the negative', copulation a vice of 'the positive'.
88
There are
many so-called philanthropists who help one section of humanity chiefly by
hindering another.
89
One lies
just as much by feigning emotions as by not telling the truth.
90
Nothing is
more certain than death, but, then again, nothing is more uncertain than when
it will come.
91
A man who
shoulders more responsibility than he can reasonably carry is being just as
irresponsible as one who doesn't shoulder enough.
92
Truth is
never more difficult to accept than when it comes from the lips of someone we
dislike.
93
Were it not
for the demerits of the ugly one would never be able to appreciate the merits
of the beautiful. A man who loves beauty
should never be one to rid the world of ugliness!
94
One should
always be a good despiser for the sake of those whom one admires.
95
Ignorance
is the root of all knowledge.
96
One would
only have the right to consider all men equal if one had never felt either
inferior or superior to anyone.
97
Astrology
is to some extent a substitute for the Intervention of
98
Were it not
for our folly it is highly doubtful that we would take as much interest in
wisdom as we do.
99
If there is
anything worse than the spectacle of an uneducated man who is ashamed of his
ignorance, it can only be that of an educated one who is ashamed of his
knowledge.
100
The human
kind is no more a particularly pleasant species than it is a particularly
unpleasant species. It is a combination
of both.
101
Where
physical love is concerned, it is mainly the man who gives and the woman who
takes. But where emotional love is
concerned, it is mainly the woman who gives and the man who takes.
102
There is no
good and evil beyond the actions of living beings.
103
Sky is an
illusion of the day, space a truth of the night.
104
One can
relate to something in everyone, to everything in no-one.
105
What one
says about other people usually reflects what one thinks about oneself.
106
A man who
lacked a capacity for cruelty could never be genuinely kind.
107
One always
overlooks the things one's memory remembers when criticizing it for something
it forgot.
108
In order to
compensate women for the fact that men are generally physically stronger than
themselves nature has generally taken care to endow them with more spirit.
109
Truth is
the object of science, illusion the subject of art.
110
We are more
readily inclined to forget the wrongs we have done to others than to forget the
wrongs others have done to us.
111
Our virtues
are often vices in disguise.
112
A rich man
with bad health is more unfortunate than a poor one whose health is good.
113
Just as we
are ignorant of the extent of our knowledge, so we have no knowledge of the
extent of our ignorance.
114
As a rule
the head prevails over the heart in man, the heart over the head in woman.
115
A deeply
emotional man is as unusual as a highly intellectual woman.
116
Just as one would soon find the daylight intolerable if it wasn't
frequently interrupted by the dark, so one would soon find goodness intolerable
if it wasn't frequently interrupted by evil.
117
Nature is a
sovereign power that will not tolerate being dictated to by man.
118
Where
emotion was high the memory is long.
119
If women
possess more vivid memories than men it is primarily because they are more
emotional.
120
It is as
foolish to apply religious criteria to science as to apply scientific criteria
to religion.
121
It is
better to be rational than irrational but, all the same, one shouldn't
endeavour to be too rational.
122
There is a
conservative element in every 'radical', a radical element in every
'conservative'.
123
Just as
atonal music is against tonality, so an atheist is against theism.
124
An atheist
may be someone who disbelieves in the existence of God, but he isn't
necessarily one who disbelieves in the Devil.
125
The harder
one works the easier one plays.
126
If the
future stands in an antithetical relationship to the past, then the present
must stand in a like relationship to the absent.
127
People
differ as widely in their conception of good and evil as in their conception of
truth and illusion.
128
The only
consolation for being a realist in practice is to become an idealist in theory.
129
There is
nothing painful in life which doesn't ultimately contribute towards one's
pleasure in it.
130
For all her
emancipation and new-found power, woman remains - and will doubtless continue
to remain - in the service of man. Every
'negative' principle exists in a like serving capacity.
131
What
Christians call 'faith' is to be found to some extent in every man, though not
necessarily within the context of Christianity.
132
Better to
be materially poor but rich in spirit than materially rich but poor in spirit.
133
The
material universe only exists because there is a spiritual universe behind it -
astrology in relation to astronomy.
134
It is as
inconceivable that the Universe should be entirely rational as that it should
be entirely irrational. It can only be
both.
135
Mind is a
consequence of matter, not something that exists in an antithetical
relationship to it, like a space, a vacuum, or a void. It is formed in and by the brain.
136
Never
forget that the two chief functions of the mind, viz. dreaming and thinking,
are interrelated, so that he who dreams well is all the better qualified to
think.
137
The path of
wisdom lies in naturalness. Only the
jungle of artifice obscures it.
138
The perfect
humanistic society is always evenly balanced between competition and
co-operation.
139
No man can
consider himself wise who does not accept his folly.
140
One should
beware of regarding life and death as antithetical. For the only real antithesis to life is the
not-life, the only real antithesis to death is - birth.
141
Were it not
for the strength of our pride, it is highly doubtful that we would be able to
survive life's many humiliations.
142
Shame of
ignorance is a mark of ignorance, not of knowledge.
143
If there is
a limitation to human knowledge it isn't something of which we should feel
ashamed, any more than a bird should feel ashamed for being unable to fly above
a certain height.
144
Inasmuch as
it is the duty of politics to take care of the 'body' of a nation, it is the
duty of religion to take care of its 'soul'.
145
Doctors and
psychiatrists exist in a negative relation to politicians and priests. For whereas the former endeavour to rid the
individual of his sickness, the latter endeavour to maintain the health of the
community.
146
Status is
usually conferred upon a man in proportion to the extent of his intelligence,
upon a woman in proportion to the extent of her beauty.
147
One
inevitably pays for one's abstract thought with the coinage of concrete
experience.
148
To the true
Christian a Satanist is less of an enemy than an atheist.
149
There is
nothing a comedian is more serious about than the telling of jokes.
150
If one
could reverse time one might not make all the same mistakes again, but one
would certainly make a lot of new ones!
151
Were it not
for his illusions, a scientist would be in no way qualified to deal with
truth. Likewise, were it not for his
truths, an artist would be in no way qualified to deal with illusion.
152
There are a
number of grounds for believing that people of different race but similar
temperament have more in common with one another than people of different
temperament but similar race.
153
The ego
rules by day, but the soul rules at night.
154
The
'objective man' is as much a figment of the imagination as the 'subjective man'. One can only be both.
155
A tolerable
life is always found between multitude and solitude, never exclusively in
either extreme.
156
There is
nothing more attractive to the eyes of a natural man than the sight of a
beautiful woman. But, conversely, there
is nothing more unattractive to him than the sight of an ugly one.
157
Even in the
most intimate of relationships, what we know about a person is usually a very
limited affair compared with what is ordinarily concealed from our knowledge.
158
The act of
prayer is man's most sublime form of egotism.
Through it the weak individual attains to a personal relationship with
'The Almighty'.
159
Sleep is
the one phenomenon that no man grows tired of.
160
One best
respects the essentially feminine in women by despising woman.
161
Only a
teacher can regularly ask a question to which he already knows the answer
without feeling particularly eccentric.
162
There is
only one certain remedy for a man who doesn't work in accordance with his
desires - namely, neurosis.
163
When we
cannot boast of our successes we take a perverse pride in grumbling of our
failures.
164
To die for
a cause is usually to give birth to an effect.
165
It is rather
difficult for human beings to appreciate, but the fact nonetheless remains that
cats have absolutely no desire to regard themselves as 'cats'.
166
Those who
endeavour to take delight in that which doesn't deserve to be delighted in ...
inevitably weaken their ability to take delight in what does.
167
There are
some things which it is important to take for granted in order not to take
everything for granted.
168
If it is
true to say that we often forget much of what we intended to remember, it is no
less true to say that we often remember much of what we intended to forget.
169
It is
questionable whether any great artist has ever been ahead of his day. In matters relating to his art, most of the
public have usually been behind it.
170
A truly
great artist should possess the ability to arouse the aesthetic sensibility of
even the most philistine temperament.
171
Those who
imagine that art should mirror life inevitably cast a poor reflection upon
themselves.
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