Archive: October 2025

Richard Kostelanetz is interested in “radical constraint.” And the aphorism is the ideal form in which to put that interest into practice. Aphorisms are, by definition, short. But Kostelanetz takes concision to an extreme by restricting himself even further — to aphorisms consisting of just four (“quadrigraphs”), three, and two (“minimaxims”) words. Kierkegaard wrote, “The more restricted I am, the more creative I become.” That is certainly true of Richard Kostelanetz’s radically constrained aphorisms.

Four-word aphorisms

If uninvited, arrive late.

Anyone understood becomes predictable.

Three-word aphorisms

Eschew questionable explanations.

Pomposity precedes comeuppance.

Historians repeat themselves.

Leftovers attract vultures.

Publishing amplifies whatever.

Be seriously funny.

Write briefest classics.

Two-word aphorisms

desire desires

never generalize

sentences end

Scroll down on this page to read some of Richard Kostelanetz’s other four-word aphorisms.

I first blogged about the aphorisms of Ninus Nestorović back in December of 2007. Ninus was recently in touch with some new aphorisms, deftly translated by his 15-year-old daughter, Tea. Ninus is a journalist, satirist, and ex-professional footballer who lives in Novi Sad, Serbia. These sayings come from his book 11:52. In an email accompanying the aphorisms, Ninus wrote he believed I would like them — and I do!

To hide from the truth, a person need not stand behind the television, but in front of it.

The poor will leave their children everything they don’t have.

With clean hands you preserve health; with dirty hands, authority.

My city has more churches than hospitals. Were there a God, the numbers would be reversed.

Were the eyes nearer the heart than the mind we’d see differently.

Translated from Serbian into English by Tea Nestorović.

Ashleigh Brilliant, the prolific creator of the drawings-aphorisms he called “Pot-Shots”, died last month in in Santa Barbara, CA. This New York Times obit has a nice summary of his writing career and a selection of some of his best sayings. A piece in the local Santa Barbara outlet Noozhawk has more detailed information on his life. Brilliant started out as a painter rather than an aphorist. His paintings, however, never went over as well as the sharp, slightly loony titles he appended to them. So instead of working on canvas, he made quick pen-and-ink drawings to illustrate his aphoristic captions. “Soon, I was making lists of titles for pictures I had not yet painted,” Brilliant once said. His have been widely published since 1975, appearing on everything from coffee mugs to postcards. Brilliant’s rules for “Pot-Shots” composition were strict: no saying can have more than 17 words (17 is also the number of syllables in a haiku), none can rhyme, no references to politics, and every saying should be easily translated into other languages. He stopped writing “Pot-Shots” when he hit 10,000. Brilliant insisted that his work could only be reproduced with his permission, so I made certain to reach out to him back in 2007 when I included some of his “Pot-Shots” in Geary’s Guide. A very cordial exchange followed, in which Brilliant granted permission for me to include his work in my book. His only question, which he posed with an exclamation mark: Which of his “Pot-Shots” had I chosen?! Here they are, Brilliant’s sayings from a brilliant mind…

Life is the only game in which the object of the game is to learn the rules.

No man is an island but some of us are long peninsulas.

I feel much better, now that I’ve given up hope.

If we all work together, we can totally disrupt the system.

If you’re careful enough, nothing bad or good will ever happen to you.

I could do great things, if I weren’t so busy doing little things.

In order to discover who you are, first learn who everybody else is, and you’re what’s left.

If you can’t learn to do it well, learn to enjoy doing it badly.