The World in a Phrase
A Brief History of the Aphorism, Second Edition
Second Edition
9780226838601
9780226838618
The World in a Phrase
A Brief History of the Aphorism, Second Edition
Second Edition
Celebrating the short, witty, philosophical phrases known as aphorisms, this delightful history is an entertaining tour through the wisest and wittiest sayings in the world.
Aphorisms are literature’s hand luggage. Light and compact, they contain everything you need to get through a rough day at the office or a dark night of the soul. Aphorisms, the oldest written art form on the planet, have been going viral for thousands of years, delivering the short, sharp shock of old forgotten truths. Today, visual artists are mixing pithy language with compelling imagery and using social media to take the form into the future. In a world of disinformation and deepfakes, aphorisms point to the power of fresh debate over tired dogma and inconvenient truths over comfortable lies.
Starting in ancient China and ending with contemporary meme-makers and street artists, The World in A Phrase tells the story of the aphorism through brief biographies of some of its greatest practitioners: sages like Lao-tzu and the Buddha, philosophers like Schopenhauer and Nietzsche, writers like George Eliot and Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach, humorists like Mark Twain and Dorothy Parker, activists like James Baldwin and Audre Lorde, poets like Langston Hughes and Kay Ryan, and artists like Jenny Holzer and David Byrne.
The World in A Phrase is for lovers of words and seekers of wisdom. This new edition of The New York Times bestseller features 26 additional aphorists and explores the aphorism in the age of social media, showing why these short sentences are the ultimate deep dives in an era when TL;DR has become a cultural catchphrase.
Aphorisms are literature’s hand luggage. Light and compact, they contain everything you need to get through a rough day at the office or a dark night of the soul. Aphorisms, the oldest written art form on the planet, have been going viral for thousands of years, delivering the short, sharp shock of old forgotten truths. Today, visual artists are mixing pithy language with compelling imagery and using social media to take the form into the future. In a world of disinformation and deepfakes, aphorisms point to the power of fresh debate over tired dogma and inconvenient truths over comfortable lies.
Starting in ancient China and ending with contemporary meme-makers and street artists, The World in A Phrase tells the story of the aphorism through brief biographies of some of its greatest practitioners: sages like Lao-tzu and the Buddha, philosophers like Schopenhauer and Nietzsche, writers like George Eliot and Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach, humorists like Mark Twain and Dorothy Parker, activists like James Baldwin and Audre Lorde, poets like Langston Hughes and Kay Ryan, and artists like Jenny Holzer and David Byrne.
The World in A Phrase is for lovers of words and seekers of wisdom. This new edition of The New York Times bestseller features 26 additional aphorists and explores the aphorism in the age of social media, showing why these short sentences are the ultimate deep dives in an era when TL;DR has become a cultural catchphrase.
Table of Contents
Preface to the 2025 Edition
Guessing Is Always More Fun Than Knowing: The Confessions of an Aphorism Addict
We Are What We Think: Ancient Sages, Preachers, and Prophets
Lao-tzu
Buddha
Confucius
Heraclitus
Jesus
Muhammad
The Zen Teachers
A Man Is Wealthy in Proportion to the Things He Can Do Without: Greek and Roman Stoics
Diogenes
Epicurus
Marcus Tullius Cicero
Seneca
Epictetus
Marcus Aurelius
Upon the Highest Throne in the World, We Are Seated, Still, upon Our Arses: European Moralists
Michel de Montaigne
Baltasar Gracián
François, Duc de La Rochefoucauld
Luc de Clapiers, Marquis de Vauvenargues
Sébastien-Roch Nicolas Chamfort
Joseph Joubert
Anne-Louise-Germaine Necker, Baronne de Staël-Holstein
George Eliot
Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach
Good and Evil Are the Prejudices of God: Seekers, Dissenters, and Skeptics
Georg Christoph Lichtenberg
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Novalis
Arthur Schopenhauer
Friedrich Nietzsche
Paul Valéry
Ludwig Wittgenstein
Jean Toomer
E. M. Cioran
The Lack of Money Is the Root of All Evil: The Rise of the American One-Liner
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Henry David Thoreau
Josh Billings
Mark Twain
Ambrose Bierce
Wallace Stevens
James Baldwin
Audre Lorde
Know Then Thyself, Presume Not God to Scan; the Proper Study of Mankind Is Man: In Praise of Light Verse
Alexander Pope
William Blake
Emily Dickinson
Samuel Hoffenstein
Dorothy Parker
Langston Hughes
Dr. Seuss
Kay Ryan
In the Beginning Was the Word—at the End Just the Cliché: Artists, Thinkers, and Misfits
Karl Kraus
Ramón Gómez de la Serna
Antonio Porchia
Malcolm de Chazal
Stanisław Jerzy Lec
Nicolás Gómez Dávila
Barbara Kruger
Jenny Holzer
David Byrne
We Kneel Before Heroes, Not Invaders: The Aphorism Today
Lee Seong-bok
Xu Bing
Clet Abraham
Eric Jarosinski
Sarah Manguso
Karen Davies
Shilpa Gupta
Lawrence Lemaoana
Make Your Own Bible
Afterisms
Notes
Bibliography
Index
Guessing Is Always More Fun Than Knowing: The Confessions of an Aphorism Addict
We Are What We Think: Ancient Sages, Preachers, and Prophets
Lao-tzu
Buddha
Confucius
Heraclitus
Jesus
Muhammad
The Zen Teachers
A Man Is Wealthy in Proportion to the Things He Can Do Without: Greek and Roman Stoics
Diogenes
Epicurus
Marcus Tullius Cicero
Seneca
Epictetus
Marcus Aurelius
Upon the Highest Throne in the World, We Are Seated, Still, upon Our Arses: European Moralists
Michel de Montaigne
Baltasar Gracián
François, Duc de La Rochefoucauld
Luc de Clapiers, Marquis de Vauvenargues
Sébastien-Roch Nicolas Chamfort
Joseph Joubert
Anne-Louise-Germaine Necker, Baronne de Staël-Holstein
George Eliot
Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach
Good and Evil Are the Prejudices of God: Seekers, Dissenters, and Skeptics
Georg Christoph Lichtenberg
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Novalis
Arthur Schopenhauer
Friedrich Nietzsche
Paul Valéry
Ludwig Wittgenstein
Jean Toomer
E. M. Cioran
The Lack of Money Is the Root of All Evil: The Rise of the American One-Liner
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Henry David Thoreau
Josh Billings
Mark Twain
Ambrose Bierce
Wallace Stevens
James Baldwin
Audre Lorde
Know Then Thyself, Presume Not God to Scan; the Proper Study of Mankind Is Man: In Praise of Light Verse
Alexander Pope
William Blake
Emily Dickinson
Samuel Hoffenstein
Dorothy Parker
Langston Hughes
Dr. Seuss
Kay Ryan
In the Beginning Was the Word—at the End Just the Cliché: Artists, Thinkers, and Misfits
Karl Kraus
Ramón Gómez de la Serna
Antonio Porchia
Malcolm de Chazal
Stanisław Jerzy Lec
Nicolás Gómez Dávila
Barbara Kruger
Jenny Holzer
David Byrne
We Kneel Before Heroes, Not Invaders: The Aphorism Today
Lee Seong-bok
Xu Bing
Clet Abraham
Eric Jarosinski
Sarah Manguso
Karen Davies
Shilpa Gupta
Lawrence Lemaoana
Make Your Own Bible
Afterisms
Notes
Bibliography
Index