I read, collect and on occasion try to write pithy and wise aphorisms. Like a gold miner from the American West, I sifted through the contents of this book and found these gems. Author is listed before his aphorisms.

By La Rochefoucauld

We promise according to our hopes; we perform according to our fears.

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To establish ourselves in the world we do everything to appear as if we were established.

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Everyone blames his memory, no one blames his judgment.

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Old men delight in giving good advice as a consolation for the fact that they can no longer set bad examples.

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We become so accustomed to disguising ourselves to others that at last we are disguised to ourselves.

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The refusal of praise is only the wish to be praised twice.

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Those who apply themselves too closely to little things often become incapable of great things.

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By Nicolas De Chamfort

What makes the success of many books consists in the affinity there is between the mediocrity of the author’s ideas and those of the public.

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A WITTY woman told me one day what may well be the secret of her sex: it is that every woman in choosing a lover takes more account of the way in which other women regard the man than of her own.

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By Charles Caleb Colton

With books, as with companions, it is of more consequence to know which to avoid, than which to choose; for good books are as scarce as good companions.

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By John Lancester Spalding

To be more impartial about the modern world, you need the vantage point of old books.

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The weak, when they have authority, surround themselves with the weak.

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Conversation injures more than it benefits. Men talk to escape from themselves, from sheer dread of silence. Reflection makes them uncomfortable, and they find distraction in a noise of words. They seek not the company of those who might enlighten and improve them, but that of whoever can divert and amuse them.

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The smaller the company, the larger the conversation.

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By Austin O’Malley 

Beware of the patient man The bigger the dam of patience, the worse the flood when the dam breaks.

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A man’s life is like a well, not like a snake— it should be measured by its depth, not by its length.

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In selecting a wife use your ears before your eyes.

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By Goethe

An intelligent man finds almost everything ridiculous, a wise man hardly anything.

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