Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with aphorism

Quoting Proust

1f2frfbf — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 07:37:03 -0800

Looking for a Marcel Proust quote in the original French. “Love is space and time directly perceptible to the heart” is what my copy of Auden's Book of Aphorisms says, but I want to know know what Proust originally wrote. Googling around I can find that it's from The Captive (La Prisonnière), and I can do a machine translation, but I'd rather know the original French.

What are some literary works that begin with an aphorism, then proceed without transition to straightforward narrative?

Mummy of a Lady Named Jemutesonekh — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 16:16:57 -0800

What are some literary works that begin with an aphorism, then proceed without transition to straightforward narrative? Example of what I mean:

The world is what it is; men who are nothing, who allow themselves to become nothing, have no place in it. ¶ Nazruddin, who had sold me the shop cheap, didn't think I would have it easy when I took over. The country, like others in Africa, had had its troubles after independence. The town in the interior, at the bend in the great river, had almost ceased to exist; and Nazruddin said I would have to start from the beginning.

Another example:

Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way. ¶ Everything was in confusion in the Oblonskys' house. The wife had discovered that the husband was carrying on an intrigue with a French girl, who had been a governess in their family, and she had announced to her husband that she could not go on living in the same house with him.

Doesn't count:

A story has no beginning or end: arbitrarily one chooses that moment of experience from which to look back or from which to look ahead. I say "one chooses" with the inaccurate pride of a professional writer who -- when he has been seriously noted at all -- has been praised for his technical ability, but do I in fact of my own will choose that black wet January night on the Common, in 1946, the sight of Henry Miles slanting across the wide river of rain, or did those images choose me? . . . It was strange to see Henry out on such a night . . .

Philosophical film character

Hermit — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 16:03:45 -0800

I'm trying to remember a film I saw in which a character, possibly engaged in some form of criminal activity (though equally likely not), speaks only one sentence a day. This sentence tends to be aphoristic in nature. What is the film?

Who wrote this quote?

bodywithoutorgans — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 22:00:09 -0800

I can't figure out the exact quote and who wrote it. It goes something like this but I'm not completely sure - "The world either breaks the heart or turns it to stone" My suspicion is Rochefoucauld, once again shaky.

How to improve my southern speakin' skillz

willie11 — Thu, 08 May 2008 07:14:16 -0800

Please help me expand my base of quaint southern expressions, aphorisms and witticisms. Obviously I need to read more southern literature and spend some quality time with the good ol' boys here in beautiful Raleigh, NC. But are there any online resources out there? Recommended books? Any southern maxim or locution you're partial to?

Don't trust the messenger

Araucaria — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 09:10:17 -0800

EpigramFilter: What's the converse of "Don't kill the messenger"? You frequently hear the expression
Don't blame the bearer of bad news.
But you don't often hear the converse, and I believe it is equally valid:
A scoundrel or a fool can make the best of news seem bad.
"Don't judge a book by its cover" is the usual way of saying this, but it doesn't really convey the emotional weight of situations like

A brilliant symphony is premiered by an unsympathetic or incompetent orchestra and its genius remains unrecognized for years.
A child abandons her faith because her only reference point for the religion is her hypocritical family
An admirable proposition can be distorted into ridiculous Straw Man argument.
A new or nuanced idea is almost certainly going to be greeted with ridicule when it is first presented, especially if it threatens the status quo.

Surely this is an ancient insight. Am I just missing the obvious adage?

Cherry Grapes?

philosophistry — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 09:34:53 -0800

What is the fable, aphorism, or metaphor that is the complement of "sour grapes" I want a word, fable, aphorism, metaphor, wise-saying or something to capture an over-excited yearning for something sought but not acquired.

Let's say you missed an opportunity to make out with a beautiful girl you were talking to last night, and your friends ask you about it the next day. If you respond with, "Eh, she was probably dumb or had a bad personality," your friends could tease you by saying you just have "sour grapes."

But let's say that you missed that opportunity and you say to your friends, "Dude, she could've been the love of my life! She was perfect!" They could respond with ____?????_______

The above example didn't actually happen to me, but I frequently have regrets that I should just self-soothe with some handy quip.

"Grass is always greener" captures some of the essence of it, but that has more to do with envy. So does "rose-colored glasses," but that has more to do with optimism.

Map this paper to the Web

Pericles — Fri, 23 Jul 2004 03:50:06 -0800

A friend of mine has a philosophy PhD paper that takes the form of 100s of short aphorisms. There are several different narrative "paths" through these. He wants to put them on the web and allow people to choose their paths through. What's the best way to do it? each aphorism as an xml record, each with a "tag" for "next aphorism in path A", "next for path B.." etc? Bonus Guinness for suggestions on how web users can set up and save their own "paths" thru for others to follow.