＃２２

If puns are the lowest common denominator of wit, then aphorisms are their twin for wisdom. An aphorism is but a cheap trick: a poor generalization that somehow gains truth through negation… an imprecise metaphor left for readers to interpret how they please… a half-baked astrologer’s cold read that has disguised itself as literature.

Yes, a good aphorism is merely one that sounds right — one that spills from the page pleasantly enough to short-circuit our usual bullshit filters. Its function is not to impart wisdom, but to flatter the reader; to convince them that they were already wise — indeed must be so — to decode such great meaning from penny-thought prose.

And yet, despite all this, it is still Wilde that calls to me, not Wittgenstein.