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All Aphorisms, All The Time
Aphorisms on journalism by John Bennet
October 19, 2025
Through a series of fortunate hyperlinks, I recently stumbled across aphorisms on journalism by John Bennet, former New Yorker editor and professor in magazine writing at Columbia Journalism School. In a brief 2022 obit on the Columbia j-school site, Betsy Morais, editor in chief of the Columbia Journalism Review, wrote that Bennet “often spoke in aphorisms.” Those aphorisms are funny, wise, and profane — just like the best newsrooms.
Put the best shit at the end, the second-best shit at the beginning, and all the other shit in between.
The best journalists always overreport.
Don’t rob the reader of feeling emotions by reacting for them (“I started to cry”).
A writer is a guy in the hospital wearing one of those gowns that’s open in the back. An editor is walking behind, making sure that nobody can see his ass.
Recent
Aphorisms on journalism by John Bennet
October 19, 2025
Through a series of fortunate hyperlinks, I recently stumbled across aphorisms on journalism by John Bennet, former New Yorker editor and professor in magazine writing at Columbia Journalism School. In a brief 2022 obit on the Columbia j-school site, Betsy Morais, editor in chief of the Columbia Journalism Review, wrote that Bennet “often spoke in […]
Richard Kostelanetz’s aphorisms of “radical constraint”
October 18, 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 Aphorisms by Ninus Nestorović
October 5, 2025
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 […]
Ashleigh Brilliant (1933–2025)
October 4, 2025
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 […]
Irving Weiss (1921-2021)
July 10, 2021
Writer, teacher and translator Irving Weiss passed away on June 13. We have Irving to thank for bringing the aphorisms of Malcolm de Chazal into English. Malcolm de Chazal (Geary’s Guide, pp. 359–361) was an aphorist and painter from Mauritius. I discovered the 1979 Sun edition of Chazal’s aphorisms, Sens-Plastique, by chance in a used […]
Wit’s End World* Tour
December 7, 2019
The Wit’s End World* Tour is winding down, but here’s a little visual retrospective of the places I’ve been and the people I’ve met. My thanks to all the booksellers, bookshops, festivals, and organizers of these events—and especially to everyone who turned out to talk about wit. (* By ‘World’, of course I mean the […]
The Summer of Wit
July 26, 2019
Check out Wit’s End live at these summer (and early fall) book festivals… Printers Row Lit Fest June 8, 2019 Chicago, IL Bookstock July 26, 2019 Woodstock, VT Chautauqua Institution July 31, 2019 Chautauqua, NY Decatur Book Festival August 30-September 1, 2019 Decatur, GA Harbor Springs Festival of the Book September 27-29, 2019 Harbor Springs, […]
Wit’s End
October 26, 2018
My new book—Wit’s End: What Wit Is, How It Works, and Why We Need It—is out on Nov. 13. The book, of course, makes the perfect holiday gift for that special (please select one) A) wit B) nitwit C) dimwit D) half-wit in your life. You can pre-order at Amazon, B&N or Indiebound. But Wit’s […]
Aphorisms by Simon Constam
June 30, 2018
Attending a reading by Terrance Hayes at the Harvard Book Store the other day, I happened to sit next to Simon Constam. We happened to get to talking, and we happened to discover that we both write and read aphorisms. As Simon said, “the odds are astronomical against two people interested in aphorisms just happening to […]
When A Pear Is A Pair
June 18, 2018
Ambiguous figures and visual puns have long been a source of popular entertainment. In 1830s England, publishers came up with a printing technique that allowed them to create illustrations with double meanings. One view is seen when the image is illuminated from the front and a different view is seen when the image is illuminated […]
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