Thomas Fitzgerald has cooked up an original mix of aphorisms (what he calls “the stuff of life”) and bread recipes (what has long been known as the staff of life). Daily Bread consists of 705 original aphorisms and a clutch of recipes from some of America’s foremost bread makers. “We might look upon aphorisms and epigrams … much as we look upon bread,” Fitzgerald writes, “as an essential substance that nourishes us on a most fundamental level, while leaving us with a warm and enduring sense of satisfaction. Indeed, what aphorism or epigram is not a sort of manna wrought from the grist of life itself, smeared over with a most-pleasing confection?” Which only serves to prove what I’ve always argued: Aphorisms are all you really knead.

Every liar must possess in memory what he lacks in conscience.

Anger acknowledged is information; anger acted upon, error.

Humility is the last lesson learned, the first forgot.

A single rose is an expression of love; a dozen, an admission of guilt.

Maturity is wasted on the mature.

He who laughs last laughs alone.