I don’t know much about William Markiewicz, except that he sent an email via this website directing me to his aphorisms, which he calls “Extracts of Existence.” He writes a straightforward, unadorned kind of aphorism that more often than not takes the form of a definition; i.e. X is Y. (The Definition is one of the eight basic types of aphorism, as defined in the forthcoming Geary’s Guide to the World’s Great Aphorists.) I believe Mr. Markiewicz is Canadian, making him part of a group of contemporary Canadian aphorists who have featured on this site recently, the others being John Robert Colombo and Irena Karafilly. He also makes the illustrations that accompany some of his aphorisms. A few extracts from “Extracts of Existence”:

The problem is physical if you can change it and philosophical if you must change yourself.

Conditions are normal when we don’t have to understand them in order to operate within them. The fish doesn’t have to ‘understand’ the water.

The last thing the madman loses is reason.

All that we cannot point a finger at is art.

Anyone who wants to accomplish the ‘transcendental’ is like a reflection that wants to leave a mark upon a mirror.

Mountains are uplifting not because you direct your gaze to the sky but to the earth.