Author: Dave Adams

It’s been years since a reader first emailed me about Franklin P. Jones (1908–1980), and in that time I’ve only been able to find this collection of aphorisms from Great Thoughts Treasury and this bio from Answers.com. Jones worked as a journalist and then as a public relations executive in and around Philadelphia. His quips and sayings appeared in the Saturday Evening Post, Reader’s Digest, and the Wall Street Journal, among other publications. He’s part of the American tradition of homespun wisdom, and like many moral aphorists of the late 19th and early 20th century he found his metier as a columnist/newspaperman, like his predecessors Josh Billings (Geary’s Guide, pp. 13–16), Mark Twain (pp. 58–61), Ambrose Bierce (pp. 356–358) and “Kin” Hubbard (pp. 37–38), with whom he shares a similar wit and sensibility.

Hubbard wrote

The safest way to double your money is to fold it over once and put it in your pocket.

Jones wrote

The most efficient labor-saving device is still money.

Hubbard wrote

Nobody ever forgets where he buried the hatchet.

Jones wrote

One thing you will probably remember well is any time you forgive and forget.

A selection of some of Jones’s other notable observations…

Nothing produces such odd result as trying to get even.

It’s a strange world of language in which skating on thin ice can get you into hot water.

Honest criticism is hard to take, particularly from a relative, a friend, an acquaintance or a stranger.

What makes resisting temptation difficult, for many people, is that they don’t want to discourage it completely.

Bravery is being the only one who knows you’re afraid.

The folks at Asociaţia Culturală Citatepedia have launched a project to promote Romanian culture online, and one of the first initiatives is a translation of 1,000 Romanian sayings into five languages—English, French, German, Italian and Spanish. The sayings come from across the cultural spectrum—poets, playwrights, philosophers, painters, journalists. The first queen of Romania, Carmen Sylva, who was also a writer, is represented with…

There is a goodness that repels and a badness that attracts.

Romania’s national poet, Mihai Eminescu, is featured with an observation that seems especially apt for the tumultuous times we’re currently in…

Contemporaries are the worst historians.

Which brings me to Ion Luca Caragiale, playwright, pamphleteer, poet, and political commentator, who is my favorite among these classic Romanian thinkers and writers…

Honor and grammar: these are the first conditions of a good press.

This world resembles a vast funfair.

Do you want to get to know things? Look at them closely. Do you want to like them? Look at them from afar.

The stupid die; stupidity is undying.

For the soul that is easily shaken, the threat is harder than the blow itself.

Judging by the portraits, these translations seem to focus on 18th, 19th and perhaps some early 20th century authors. For those wanting to hear a contemporary voice, check out a previous post on Valeriu Butulescu…

A derailed tram considers itself independent.

You can read the full list of Romanian aphorists in English here at the Intercogito project. In the meantime, with thanks to the Asociaţia Culturală Citatepedia for providing this fascinating glimpse into Romanian aphoristic writing, a selection of some other authors and their aphorisms…

Books show us what our mind alone is not capable of making us fathom.
—Panait Istrati

Beware of banality. Don’t forget, if you must drown, at least don’t drown in a basin—fling yourself into the ocean.
—Octavian Goga

The moments of our life have the same significance as ashes being sifted
—Max Blecher

A teaspoonful of wit is sometimes worth more than a wagonful of strength.
—Liviu Rebreanu

You love your homeland even more when you have lived away from it for a while and when you have listened to what foreigners say and how they judge it.
—Iulia Hasdeu