Dr. Martin Hash Podcast

People write whole books that could be boiled down to a single sentence, an aphorism: a witty saying highlighting a truth that survives long after the author. Benjamin Franklin was accomplished in many fields but it's “apple a day” and “penny saved” sayings that we remember him by. The cleverness of an aphorism is in direct proportion to its memorability, but at the same time they need to contain a universal truth; that’s a difficult tightrope, and probably why there doesn't seem to be many people who are quotable?

Obviously, aphorisms are popular; a simple internet search will reveal thousands of them. Unfortunately, many of the most famous quotes are simply wrong: fairy tales written for the naive, or misinterpretations that have become accepted as fact because they are undisputed; for example, “it's better to give than to receive,” or “if a job is worth doing, it is worth doing well,” both of which are nonsense but goes unchallenged because they're close to scripture at this point. It would take a wise person indeed to go through all the existing aphorisms and sort out the good from the bad, but the results would be well worth it because a distinctive aphorism is often the only insight a person still retains throughout their life.