I took a spin through some back issues of Reader’s Digest, where I first discovered aphorisms, and was delighted (and surprised) by what I found. I sampled a few issues from the late 1960s and early 1970s, and I was reminded of the Points to Ponder recurring feature, a version of the Quotable Quo...

It was the title — Are You a Bromide? — that caught my attention. Potassium bromide is used in medicine as a sedative; literary bromides, anti-aphorisms, have the same effect. In this slim book, published in the early 1900s, author and humorist Gelett Burgess defines two types of people: the Brom...

Thanks to my colleagues in the Harvard Kennedy School’s Communications Program for inviting me to do a talk on political aphorisms. From the form’s beginnings in ancient China and Egypt, aphorisms have always been about governing — how to govern the self, the state, society. In Egypt, rulers like...

Vladimir Putin is out with his latest annual calendar, which attempts to portray the Russian dictator in various manly, domestic, and statesmanlike settings. Each page of the calendar is accompanied by an attempt to portray the Russian dictator saying some vaguely manly, domestic, and statesmanli...

Here are three more recent podcasts about all things aphoristic, with some conversation highlights indicated by time signatures… Once again I’m grateful for the chance to talk about The World in A Phrase on these wonderful podcasts and thank the hosts for their close readings and fun, provocative...