Nuggets of Wisdom

The Passionate State of Mind: 

And Other Aphorisms 

by Eric Hoffer

"Every intense desire is perhaps basically a desire to be different from what we are." - Eric Hoffer







This book is characterized by its concise and impactful statements. Each aphorism is a nugget of wisdom, often challenging conventional thinking and offering fresh perspectives on familiar themes. This format makes it a book that can be savored slowly, with each sentence prompting reflection. Hoffer's aphorisms are not always comforting or predictable. He often presents paradoxes and challenges readers to question their assumptions about themselves and the world around them.

One of the main themes, as the title implies, is how emotions, especially strong ones like passion, love, hate, fear, and vanity, influence both individual behavior and large-scale movements. Hoffer investigates the causes, expressions, and effects of these.

Hoffer's strength is his capacity to condense difficult concepts into straightforward but impactful assertions. He makes observations on a wide range of subjects, such as self-worth, leadership, creativity, social change, and the nature of belief, based on his extensive reading and firsthand experiences as a longshoreman.

Even though "The Passionate State of Mind" was written decades ago, its insights are still relevant today. His insights on the dynamics of social unrest, the pursuit of belonging, and fanaticism are still remarkably applicable today.

Manners, Readers, and Honest Books

Books and Readers

 130

Readers' bad manners. --- A reader is doubly guilty of bad manners against the author when he praises the second book at the expense of the first ( or vice versa ) and then asks the author to be grateful for that.

137 

The worst readers. --- The worst readers are those who proceed like plundering soldiers: they pick up a few things they can use, soil and confuse the rest, and blaspheme the whole.

145

Value of honest books. --- Honest books make the reader honest, at least by luring into the open his hatred and aversion which his sly prudence otherwise knows how to conceal best. But against a book one lets oneself go, even if one is very reserved toward people.

On the Genealogy of Morals by Friedrich Nietzsche, Walter Kaufmann & R. J. Hollingdale, trans. Vintage, 1989 (1887). p 175

Humane Maxims

The Art of Worldly Wisdom 
by Baltasar Gracián



“Three things make a marvel, and are at the acme of true nobility:  fertile intelligence, deep powers of judgement, and a pleasant, relevant taste.”   ― Baltasar Gracián, The Art of Worldly Wisdom



This collection of aphorisms rivals the wisdom found in Machiavelli's The Prince or Sun-Tzu's The Art of War. However this is significantly less well-known than the other two. 
Gracian was a Spanish Jesuit scholar and baroque prose writer and philosopher. He wrote down his observations of those in power. His study of statesmen and potentates demonstrates examples of their ethical behavior and worldly effectiveness. Collected as The Art of Worldly Wisdom, it is almost entirely composed of three hundred maxims with commentary. He constantly plays with words: each phrase becomes a puzzle, using the most diverse rhetorical devices.

Gracián is the most representative writer of the Spanish Baroque literary style known as Conceptism, of which he was the most important theoretician; his Wit and the Art of Inventiveness is at once a poetic, a rhetoric and an anthology of the conceptist style. I found many of the maxims in this collection useful insights into a humane way of living and achieving a flourishing life.


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The Quest to Understand

A Dancing Star: 
Inspirations to Guide and Heal
by Eileen Campbell

"The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes." - Marcel Proust


In Also Sprach Zarathustra Nietzsche said: "I say to you: 'One must have chaos in oneself in order to give birth to a dancing star.'" In this collection Eileen Campbell has gathered quotations from both East and West to speak to people whose lives are constantly subject to change, and frequently chaotic as a result. She relies on the premise that our problems are not unique; likely to be part of the human condition. The result is that there are times we need inspiration. For most readers there are old favorites, but also different quotes not found in traditional sources. The result is an anthology that bears fruit from repeated visits and meditation on the direction that is suggested by study of each quote. This small book has room for an informative list of recommended reading which makes it even more valuable.


Here are some of my favorites:
"Do not weep; do not wax indignant. Understand." -Baruch Spinoza
"The greatest human quest is to know what one must do in order to become a human being." -Immanuel Kant
"Knowing other is intelligence; knowing yourself is true wisdom. Mastering others is strength; mastering yourself is true power." - Lao-Tzu

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Aphorists from Adorno to Zomeren

Geary's Guide 

to the World's Great Aphorists 

by James Geary

"People of solitude always love the aphorism. It gives distraction to the hypochondriac, it gives an air of composure and calm to the nervous, it gives the illusion of productivity to the thinker and the poet in times of barrenness and nonproductivity."  -  Vilhelm Ekelund


I have enjoyed aphoristic thinkers and writers for most of my reading life. Authors from Epictetus to Rochester and, especially the Germans: Lichtenberg, Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, and my favorite, Goethe ("A good man is always a beginner").
James Geary has compiled an authoritative guide that not only includes all of those and many other well known writers but those less well known with aphorisms that often surprise the reader with aptness if not always greatness. The aphorists are grouped by category such as comics, moralists, painters and poets. In addition to the aphorisms there is a brief biography for each author. One of the most fascinating aspects of the guide are aphoristic comparisons called "Parallel Lines". These are included after many of the entries and present varying interpretations of similar aphorisms by different authors.
Importantly for the reader there are two indices that provide listings by author and by theme. More importantly for those who want to explore an author in depth there is an extensive bibliography. As with most reference books of this kind I enjoy dipping into the book from time to time. It is exciting to find authors previously unknown who have pithy or poignant things to say. One of my favorite sections is titled "Strange Beasts" and include those aphorists who "resist easy categorization" according to Geary. Included in this group are aphorists as disparate as Emily Dickinson and Ludwig Wittgentstein. Also in this group is Ambrose Bierce who appropriately wrote, "Aphorism, n. Predigested wisdom."
If you are looking for an on-line feast of aphorisms you should visit James Geary's aphorisms. 


Geary's Guide to the World's Great Aphorists by James Geary.  Bloomsbury, 2007.