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The Faber Book of Aphorisms: A Personal Selection
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
June 25, 2026
First published in 1962 just prior to the joint discoveries of sex and the Beatles first LP in 1962 these 400 pages contain around 3000 aphorisms - it’s perverse enough to read all these whilst at stool - but counting them would be utterly de trop. 3000 (give or take) ‘principle(s) or precept(s) expressed in few words; a short pithy sentence containing a truth of general import; a maxim’ [OED] and in the main that’s true, although some are arrant nonsense:
‘The public buys its opinions as it buys milk, on the principle that it is cheaper to do this than keep a cow. So it is, but the milk is more likely to be watered.’ (Samuel Butler II).
Or,
‘Superfluity of lecturing causes ischial bursitis.’ (William Osler) - Superfluity of listening perhaps, but generally lecturers stand.
But it’s an amiable way to pass the time awaiting motility and quite often relaxing: ‘The civil wilderness of sleep’ (Robert Herrick).
Two stars taken off for not naming the sources, of course all these can now be looked up on the Web, and for not giving authors brief details - life and death dates would be a minimum. The aphorisms are thematically arranged, but a keyword index would also be useful.
‘The public buys its opinions as it buys milk, on the principle that it is cheaper to do this than keep a cow. So it is, but the milk is more likely to be watered.’ (Samuel Butler II).
Or,
‘Superfluity of lecturing causes ischial bursitis.’ (William Osler) - Superfluity of listening perhaps, but generally lecturers stand.
But it’s an amiable way to pass the time awaiting motility and quite often relaxing: ‘The civil wilderness of sleep’ (Robert Herrick).
Two stars taken off for not naming the sources, of course all these can now be looked up on the Web, and for not giving authors brief details - life and death dates would be a minimum. The aphorisms are thematically arranged, but a keyword index would also be useful.
March 31, 2017
A mixed bag: Many good quotes are included, including some new ones by familiar names which I had not encountered before, but also far too many bad ones. There were many quotes included on topics in which I'm not remotely interested (e.g. artists, poetry), and not enough quotes on topics in which I am interested. To give an example of the priorities of the editors of this book, the book includes only four and a half pages of quotes about the topic of science (very few of them any good) but on the other hand it devotes a whopping 26 full pages to 'The Arts' and another 20 pages to 'Religion and God'. There were multiple quotes which were included more than once in the book, I spotted at least seven or eight quotes which featured more than once in different sections (I stopped counting after the first few repeats, because by then I had realized that it was not a single slip-up or two, but rather a systematic issue), and I really do not like repeats in books like these.
Worth reading if you're into this kind of book and I did like it on account of the few gems included, but if you are just looking for good quotes you hardly need to read the book in full - you could probably skip entire chapters of this one completely without missing a single worthwhile quote, which is perhaps a somewhat damning observation, in my opinion, as it is obviously very far from a desirable state of affairs that you be able to do something like that when reading books of this nature.
Worth reading if you're into this kind of book and I did like it on account of the few gems included, but if you are just looking for good quotes you hardly need to read the book in full - you could probably skip entire chapters of this one completely without missing a single worthwhile quote, which is perhaps a somewhat damning observation, in my opinion, as it is obviously very far from a desirable state of affairs that you be able to do something like that when reading books of this nature.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews