Patricie Hole?ková is a Czech aphorist. Born in Slovakia, she studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Kracow and has lived in the Czech Republic since 1982. Her aphorisms first appeared in the Czech anthology A Good Word Never Cuts to The Quick (2004). Her first collection, Aphorisms (Oftis), was published in 2005 and this year a new collection, Without Many Words, is due out. For more aphorisms, go to Patricie Hole?ková’s website.

I prefer the living thoughts of the dead as opposed to the dead thoughts of the living.

He who doesn’t have ideals idealizes whatever he has.

Some people have so much self-confidence that they can’t even be flattered.

We flatter ourselves the most when we say that we value sincerity more than flattery

Those who don’t pretend they’re smarter think they’re smarter.

A big mistake is to overlook the small one.

Only in disappointment do we realize how big our hopes were.

Young people have illusions about the future, old people about the past.