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The Viking Book of Aphorisms
A glittering anthology of 3,000 of the wisest, wittiest, most profound bon mots ever. More than 400 great savants, including Wilde, Goethe, Thoreau, Nietzsche, and Bacon lend eloquent insights into science, the sexes, habit, old age, truth, politics and all the other vital aspects of the human condition. An index of authors and a key-word index make it easy to find aphorisms either by source or by particular topic. But the reader who just dips into this book anywhere will find a feast of insight, illumination and wit. A classic in its field.
431 pages, Paperback
Published November 19, 1981
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161 people want to read
About the author
W.H. Auden
620 books1,066 followersPoems, published in such collections as
Look, Stranger!
(1936) and
The Shield of Achilles
(1955), established importance of British-American writer and critic Wystan Hugh Auden in 20th-century literature.
In and near Birmingham, he developed in a professional middle-class family. He attended English independent schools and studied at Christ church, Oxford. From 1927, Auden and Christopher Isherwood maintained a lasting but intermittent sexual friendship despite briefer but more intense relations with other men. Auden passed a few months in Berlin in 1928 and 1929.
He then spent five years from 1930 to 1935, teaching in English schools and then traveled to Iceland and China for books about his journeys. People noted stylistic and technical achievement, engagement with politics, morals, love, and religion, and variety in tone, form and content. He came to wide attention at the age of 23 years in 1930 with his first book, Poems ; The Orators followed in 1932.
Three plays in collaboration with Christopher Isherwood in 1935 to 1938 built his reputation in a left-wing politics.
People best know this Anglo for love such as "Funeral Blues," for political and social themes, such as "September 1, 1939," for culture and psychology, such as The Age of Anxiety , and for religion, such as For the Time Being and "Horae Canonicae." In 1939, partly to escape a liberal reputation, Auden moved to the United States. Auden and Christopher Isherwood maintained a lasting but intermittent sexual friendship to 1939. In 1939, Auden fell in lust with Chester Kallman and regarded their relation as a marriage.
From 1941, Auden taught in universities. This relationship ended in 1941, when Chester Kallman refused to accept the faithful relation that Auden demanded, but the two maintained their friendship.
Auden taught in universities through 1945. His work, including the long For the Time Being and The Sea and the Mirror , in the 1940s focused on religious themes. He attained citizenship in 1946.
The title of his long The Age of Anxiety , a popular phrase, described the modern era; it won him the Pulitzer Prize in 1947. From 1947, he wintered in New York and summered in Ischia. From 1947, Auden and Chester Kallman lived in the same house or apartment in a non-sexual relation and often collaborated on opera libretti, such as The Rake's Progress for music of Igor Stravinsky until death of Auden.
Occasional visiting professorships followed in the 1950s. From 1956, he served as professor at Oxford. He wintered in New York and summered in Ischia through 1957. From 1958, he wintered usually in New York and summered in Kirchstetten, Austria.
He served as professor at Oxford to 1961; his popular lectures with students and faculty served as the basis of his prose The Dyer's Hand in 1962.
Auden, a prolific prose essayist, reviewed political, psychological and religious subjects, and worked at various times on documentary films, plays, and other forms of performance. Throughout his controversial and influential career, views on his work ranged from sharply dismissive, treating him as a lesser follower of William Butler Yeats and T.S. Eliot, to strongly affirmative, as claim of Joseph Brodsky of his "greatest mind of the twentieth century."
He wintered in Oxford in 1972/1973 and summered in Kirchstetten, Austria, until the end of his life.
After his death, films, broadcasts, and popular media enabled people to know and ton note much more widely "Funeral Blues," "Musée des Beaux Arts," "Refugee Blues," "The Unknown Citizen," and "September 1, 1939," t
In and near Birmingham, he developed in a professional middle-class family. He attended English independent schools and studied at Christ church, Oxford. From 1927, Auden and Christopher Isherwood maintained a lasting but intermittent sexual friendship despite briefer but more intense relations with other men. Auden passed a few months in Berlin in 1928 and 1929.
He then spent five years from 1930 to 1935, teaching in English schools and then traveled to Iceland and China for books about his journeys. People noted stylistic and technical achievement, engagement with politics, morals, love, and religion, and variety in tone, form and content. He came to wide attention at the age of 23 years in 1930 with his first book, Poems ; The Orators followed in 1932.
Three plays in collaboration with Christopher Isherwood in 1935 to 1938 built his reputation in a left-wing politics.
People best know this Anglo for love such as "Funeral Blues," for political and social themes, such as "September 1, 1939," for culture and psychology, such as The Age of Anxiety , and for religion, such as For the Time Being and "Horae Canonicae." In 1939, partly to escape a liberal reputation, Auden moved to the United States. Auden and Christopher Isherwood maintained a lasting but intermittent sexual friendship to 1939. In 1939, Auden fell in lust with Chester Kallman and regarded their relation as a marriage.
From 1941, Auden taught in universities. This relationship ended in 1941, when Chester Kallman refused to accept the faithful relation that Auden demanded, but the two maintained their friendship.
Auden taught in universities through 1945. His work, including the long For the Time Being and The Sea and the Mirror , in the 1940s focused on religious themes. He attained citizenship in 1946.
The title of his long The Age of Anxiety , a popular phrase, described the modern era; it won him the Pulitzer Prize in 1947. From 1947, he wintered in New York and summered in Ischia. From 1947, Auden and Chester Kallman lived in the same house or apartment in a non-sexual relation and often collaborated on opera libretti, such as The Rake's Progress for music of Igor Stravinsky until death of Auden.
Occasional visiting professorships followed in the 1950s. From 1956, he served as professor at Oxford. He wintered in New York and summered in Ischia through 1957. From 1958, he wintered usually in New York and summered in Kirchstetten, Austria.
He served as professor at Oxford to 1961; his popular lectures with students and faculty served as the basis of his prose The Dyer's Hand in 1962.
Auden, a prolific prose essayist, reviewed political, psychological and religious subjects, and worked at various times on documentary films, plays, and other forms of performance. Throughout his controversial and influential career, views on his work ranged from sharply dismissive, treating him as a lesser follower of William Butler Yeats and T.S. Eliot, to strongly affirmative, as claim of Joseph Brodsky of his "greatest mind of the twentieth century."
He wintered in Oxford in 1972/1973 and summered in Kirchstetten, Austria, until the end of his life.
After his death, films, broadcasts, and popular media enabled people to know and ton note much more widely "Funeral Blues," "Musée des Beaux Arts," "Refugee Blues," "The Unknown Citizen," and "September 1, 1939," t
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
December 17, 2016
Do you want to read a book of aphorisms? If yes, this is a good book for you.
At some point during undergrad I was walking around the public library, exploring the stacks when I was supposed to be researching the Gunpowder Plot. I do not recall why I was in the public library instead of the University Library. In all honesty both institutions are well meaning and underfunded. I stumbled across a copy of A Certain World: A Commonplace Book by W. H. Auden. I looked through it for maybe half an hour. I don't know why, but I never checked it out. I've just looked and an old hardback edition is over a hundred dollars on Amazon. A few years later, on a wordpress blog I cannot remember the name of, I wrote an entry about commonplace books. I was quite proud of it. A close friend of an ex-girlfriend commented on it. I never heard from the ex-girlfriend.
Maybe a decade later I returned to my interest in commonplace books through an interest in aphorisms. Being to unsure of my analytical skills to read philosophy monographs, aphorisms have become a way for me to get at some of the big ideas with silly one liners. A tattered copy of this collection of Aphorism, co-edited by Auden was under a dollar online and has been a constant companion for longer than the month reported here.
When does someone really finish a book? A guy I went to college with once told me that growing up meant learning to put down a book when it had taught you all it could. He was a pretentious asshole. I've dipped into this volume lots of times, and read about 4/5 of from front to back. It is heavy on early Modern/Victorian Englishmen, but I would gamble any collection of aphorisms in English would be. I have been most excited by Alexis de Tocqueville, Chesterton, Halifax, Emerson, and Thoreau. Often fresh perspectives on dusty old figures known for old tomes I've never read but talk about all the time.
I will continue to read, and copy out some of my favorites from this collection in blue ink into the journal I now keep, not quite a commonplace book, but who knows. It might do well to transform. Recommended.
At some point during undergrad I was walking around the public library, exploring the stacks when I was supposed to be researching the Gunpowder Plot. I do not recall why I was in the public library instead of the University Library. In all honesty both institutions are well meaning and underfunded. I stumbled across a copy of A Certain World: A Commonplace Book by W. H. Auden. I looked through it for maybe half an hour. I don't know why, but I never checked it out. I've just looked and an old hardback edition is over a hundred dollars on Amazon. A few years later, on a wordpress blog I cannot remember the name of, I wrote an entry about commonplace books. I was quite proud of it. A close friend of an ex-girlfriend commented on it. I never heard from the ex-girlfriend.
Maybe a decade later I returned to my interest in commonplace books through an interest in aphorisms. Being to unsure of my analytical skills to read philosophy monographs, aphorisms have become a way for me to get at some of the big ideas with silly one liners. A tattered copy of this collection of Aphorism, co-edited by Auden was under a dollar online and has been a constant companion for longer than the month reported here.
When does someone really finish a book? A guy I went to college with once told me that growing up meant learning to put down a book when it had taught you all it could. He was a pretentious asshole. I've dipped into this volume lots of times, and read about 4/5 of from front to back. It is heavy on early Modern/Victorian Englishmen, but I would gamble any collection of aphorisms in English would be. I have been most excited by Alexis de Tocqueville, Chesterton, Halifax, Emerson, and Thoreau. Often fresh perspectives on dusty old figures known for old tomes I've never read but talk about all the time.
I will continue to read, and copy out some of my favorites from this collection in blue ink into the journal I now keep, not quite a commonplace book, but who knows. It might do well to transform. Recommended.
August 14, 2008
It's like an encyclopedia of brilliant authors exuding brilliance. Aphorisms are kind of great. I particularly enjoyed the sections on God and Religion and Love.
October 5, 2023
“A little knowledge is a dangerous thing. So is a lot.” - Albert Einstein (1879 - 1955)
This book is a selection of 3,000 aphorisms (not epigrams) from more than 400 authors.
The problem with aphorisms is that they like quotes from the Bible or Shakespeare stick with you, even when you do not remember who said it.
This book is fun to read from front to back; as a reference, it may be a tad lacking. The aphorisms are divided into arbitrary categories or chapters. The author of the aphorism is stated by the last name only. The source material is not mentioned. However, this is a starting place, and you can use the net to complete the missing information.
Example:
“When one is polite in German, one lies.” - GOETHE
FYI Einstein was not one of the selected.
This book is a selection of 3,000 aphorisms (not epigrams) from more than 400 authors.
The problem with aphorisms is that they like quotes from the Bible or Shakespeare stick with you, even when you do not remember who said it.
This book is fun to read from front to back; as a reference, it may be a tad lacking. The aphorisms are divided into arbitrary categories or chapters. The author of the aphorism is stated by the last name only. The source material is not mentioned. However, this is a starting place, and you can use the net to complete the missing information.
Example:
“When one is polite in German, one lies.” - GOETHE
FYI Einstein was not one of the selected.
October 8, 2023
“A little knowledge is a dangerous thing. So is a lot.” - Albert Einstein (1879 - 1955)
This book is a selection of 3,000 aphorisms (not epigrams) from more than 400 authors.
The problem with aphorisms is that they like quotes from the Bible or Shakespeare stick with you, even when you do not remember who said it.
This book is fun to read from front to back; as a reference, it may be a tad lacking. The aphorisms are divided into arbitrary categories or chapters. The author of the aphorism is stated by the last name only. The source material is not mentioned. However, this is a starting place, and you can use the net to complete the missing information.
Example:
“When one is polite in German, one lies.” - GOETHE
FYI Einstein was not one of the selected.
This book is a selection of 3,000 aphorisms (not epigrams) from more than 400 authors.
The problem with aphorisms is that they like quotes from the Bible or Shakespeare stick with you, even when you do not remember who said it.
This book is fun to read from front to back; as a reference, it may be a tad lacking. The aphorisms are divided into arbitrary categories or chapters. The author of the aphorism is stated by the last name only. The source material is not mentioned. However, this is a starting place, and you can use the net to complete the missing information.
Example:
“When one is polite in German, one lies.” - GOETHE
FYI Einstein was not one of the selected.
December 22, 2014
Auden is one of my top favorites authors so it's fun to read his personal favorite quotes from other authors. Of course you'll probably already now most of the authors: Shakespeare, Proust, Rochefoucauld, Baudelaire, etc, etc.
January 29, 2009
Good stuff.
November 17, 2009
Excellent reference. Audens' taste is evident.
August 9, 2010
The only funny thing is that I was continually thinking of even more (and even better) quotes that should have been in here.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews