Greg Linster (@GregLinster) presents a dozen sayings that riff off a wide range of fellow aphorists, from Valery (“One never finishes a work of art; one abandons it”) to Groucho Marx (“I wouldn’t join any club that would have me as a member”). Linster takes gently satirical swipes at academe, marketing, aphorists (yikes!) and, most importantly, himself, deftly demonstrating the aphorism’s crucial role in confronting us with the (not always so pleasant) truth about ourselves and others.

Citing aphorisms rarely signifies intelligence, then again, neither does creating them.

The cheapest is rarely the least expensive.

Amassing an easy fortune often becomes a great misfortune.

Reality wears many different masks.

The trouble with reality is that it doesn’t seem all that real.

When all else fails, wax epistemic.

One never truly finishes an essay, but yet we publish them anyway.

Ambition is the cancer of happiness.

We’re all victims of someone’s beliefs, namely our own.

I don’t want to be associated with any academic discipline that allows people like me to be members of it.

Man is the only beast that tries to deny his beastliness.

Marketing: it gets people to buy new things that look used and used things that look new.