A cherished old form of literature, the art of formulting maxims or epigrams seems to have fallen out of favour with XXth and XXIth century authors. From the Chinese to King Solomon's Proverbs (nihil novi sub sole est), to the Greeks and the Romans, to the mediaeval scholastic writers, to the Renaissance, to Montaigne, Shakespeare, Cervantes, Luther, Voltaire, Goethe, Nietzsche, and Oscar Wilde, a wealth of aphorisms has come down to us: ethical, unethical, humorous, enlightening, excruciatingly cruel, and frequently worth more reflection than many books.

Below we reproduce all 123 "impromptus" I wrote for Ex Tempore XIII (2002). Before that, I had published about 800, and since then I have written at least 600 more. One of these days I intend to compile "One thousand and one aphorisms" and organize them by subject matter: human frailties, love, the workplace, nature, the animal world, war and peace, etc.. But I'm not there yet.

 

***

War is not a given in life, but rather a crime willed by megalomaniacs, organized by bureaucrats, sold by media propaganda and suffered by soldiers and civilians alike. There are no "good wars", for all are bloody, dehumanizing, nasty, unjust and eminently avoidable.

The rule of law is more than a platitude, and much more than mere positivism.  It entails predictability, uniformity of application, absence of arbitrariness.  Most importantly the rule of law must be the rule of justice.  Laws that perpetuate privilege and injustice must be abrogated and replaced by laws that advance human well-being and human dignity.  Some countries pay lip service to the rule of law while practicing the antediluvian might is right paradigm.

Democracy is not an end in itself, but a means to achieve the sacred promises of human dignity, justice and peace. Democracy is not just the ballot box, nor is it mere majority rule. It is a form of government based on respect and solidarity with other members of society. It is a Covenant to listen to all members of the demos.

Civilization is the long journey from predator behavior to interdependence, rule of law and caritas.

Neither can we ski like the pros, nor can we sing like Met soloists, but we can sense the divine in their prowess and vicariously partake in that transcendental humanness.  They too, Olympic champions and opera singers, are members of our species, have two eyes, two ears, one mouth -- and though their achievements will also pass, we prolong them by internalizing them.

Fantasies are invigorating for the spirit, but their magic escapes if we try to concretize them.  Living out our fantasies hic et nunc is dangerous business.

Poetry resides in us all, but only the passionate few can reveal the magic. 

Civilization is the gradual transformation of the human predator into a social being endowed with a moral conscience and an awareness of both rights and duties. Alas, there are still too many antediluvian predators roaming Planet Earth. How can we teach ethics, peace and solidarity to these slow learners? That's a worthy challenge for 2013!

Human dignity has nothing to do with “justiciability” and less with positivism.  Dignity derives from the essence of the human person, and justice reflects equilibrium and harmony as an expression of the intrinsic nature of things. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948 certainly did not invent the rights there proclaimed, nor for that matter la Déclaration des droits de l'homme et du citoyen of 1789.  These are but incomplete compilations of some human entitlements, for surely the rights predated their codification.  It is a poor excuse to say that a right does not exist (e.g. the right to the homeland, the right to peace, the right to a sustainable environment) or that it is not “justiciable”, just because it has not been specifically codified. Lawyers have a responsibility to complete the task of codification and politicians must establish enforcement mechanisms that ensure real remedies.

Art evokes a transcendental meaning, transmits a vital spark. It is not chaos, it is not n’importe quoi. So-called modern opera productions delight in reversing aesthetic values and reject -- quite deliberately -- the hitherto attainable synthesis of art forms (music, libretto, singing, acting, staging, costumes), a concept that Wagner termed Gesamtkunstwerk or total work of art. The current fashion of so-called “director’s theater” (Regietheater) is to allow opera directors to supplant the composer and librettist and experiment with a kind of surrealistic parallelism – on the one side an unchanged musical score and libretto, on the other a different plot, a dream, a time-machine transposition. Instead of coordinating the staging to the music and libretto, a “spectacle” is played-out, admittedly with some tenuous links to the original message of the opera. The problem is that the effect is short-lived, only to become artificial, forced, boring, even ludicrous. Thus, for instance, the new, thoroughly unconvincing production of Lohengrin at La Scala fails miserably, notwithstanding the superlative voices. This production reminds me of what the Germans call a Schnappsidee – i.e. a wet idea that may seem intelligible under the influence of alcohol (Schnapps), but distinctly less so if you are in full use of your mental faculties. The asymmetries of Regietheater thus condemn it to be a temporary fad, a parody of culture, not a long-term dismantlement of art. And yet, the fad is not without consequences. Perhaps the greatest harm perpetrated by these art polluters (who evidently enjoy spraying graffiti on genius (Elisabeth Schwartzkopf)) is endured by the young. My generation was privileged to experience inspiring opera productions conducted by Karl Bohm, Herbert von Karajan etc. with intelligent staging by Schneider-Siemssen and others. Our younger generation of melomanes is being deprived of the opportunity of being seduced by a true Eva in Meistersinger or Marie-Thérèse in Rosenkavalier. What a shame, since modern technology and light effects would render the staging of opera much easier than in the past. "Modernity" does not have to mean parody -- or demolition. Art is the perfection of music, staging and dance -- for instance the 2007 Mariinsky Ballet production of Swan Lake in St. Petersburg, with Uliana Lopatkina (Odile) and Danila Korsuntsev (Prince Siegfried), conducted by Valery Gergiev, in the Ross MacGibbon production.

Humour delights in paradox, irony, unexpected turns, serendipity ... It entails that felicitous faculty of seeing a funny side in all human endeavour, recognizing ourselves in other peoples' foibles, sensing the ephemeral in vanity, jealousy, pettiness, taking distance, putting things in perspective --always with a sense for proportion-- laughing at awkward situations, including laughing at our own idiosyncrasies. Humour is an attitude quite unlike cynicism or hubris. It manifests an optimistic mindset, an exultation of spirit, an affirmation of joie de vivre.

When contemplating history, it is best to put aside labels, ideologies and nationalities, because they invariably cloud our vision, and what we think are short-cuts frequently turn out to be obstacles. What really matters is the personal integrity and courage, the nobility and heroism of individuals. Generalizations about peoples or even civilizations are artificial and all too often dehumanizing. Surely there were good Neanderthals and good Cro Magnons, good Israelis and Philistines, good Greeks and Persians, good Athenians and Spartans, good Romans and Carthaginians, good Crusaders and Fatimids, good Protestants and Papists, good French revolutionaries and royalists, good Unionists and Confederates, good Marxists and capitalists. There are heroes and scoundrels in every human conflict, for reality is never black and white, as in the good there is always an admixture of bad, and even in the bad some good. We should therefore celebrate the human being in all his complexity and contradictions, we shoud honour his good deeds -- not the Zeitgeist-caricature of humanity, nor the ideological "flavour of the month".

Belief is identity and raison d'être, as human nature requires an emotional map, reference points, defined goals -- no vacuum, no black hole ... For our own well-being we need to believe in something –the actual belief being somewhat less important.  Crucial is the readiness to have faith in ourselves and in humanity, in our culture, in human dignity, in the values of our nation -- not chauvinistically, not blindly "my country right or wrong", but consciously for the good of our community -- to believe in a cause bigger than ourselves, to serve a higher goal, even if we cannot reach it. And when we die, we can say, we have believed, and our yearning and striving has given meaning to our lives. Wer immer strebend sich bemüht, den können wir erlösen (Goethe, Faust II, 11936–11937). The temerity to believe in nothing may be a modern pseudo-philosophy, but it is neither heroic nor healthy, not even funny, but instead a manifestation of misanthropy, an insipid form of nihilism, a petulant mood devoid of fire, devoid of cheer. Thus, let us celebrate the rite of spring and the music of flowers -- and people -- around us. Fe y adelante!

Learning how to love ourselves, how to forgive ourselves is undoubtedly an important lesson for a good and healthy life. While evil and guilt do exist, they can and must be marshalled. A guilt fixation or obsession is in itself a fault, a sin. Guilt must be tempered by mercy and by a sense for proportion. How else can we love others, if we do not respect oneselves first. It should be obvious to everyone that if we are to love others as we love ourselves (golden rule), we must also know and accept our own wrinkles, sins and imperfections. Admittedly, we neither love nor condone sin, but we must exercise the faculty to rise above sin and to continue testing our conduct against universal ethical principles day by day. Only thus can we develop a life strategy how to deal with the reality of evil, evil which predated our birth, evil and injustice which existed even before Adam and Eve. We must reject the paradigm of original sin and embrace instead the paradigm of grace and forgiveness through the Cross and Resurrection. Sursum corda!

Every one knows the Latin maxim: si vis pacem, para bellum -- if you want peace, prepare war (Livius VI, 18,7; Vegetius, 'Epitome rei militaris' 3, prologue)). Surely it would be better to propose: si vis pacem, cole justitiam. If you want peace, cultivate justice ! This enlightened maxim greets you at the Peace Palace in The Hague and at the ILO headquarters in Geneva (ILO was awarded the Nobel peace price 1969). Policy-makers and civil society take note!

***

Although, in principle, history-writing should observe the five C's of chronology, context, causality, consequences and comparison, many contemporary historians seem to delight in anachronisms, ignoring the context and root causes of events, indulging in post hoc ergo propter hoc fallacies and teleological conclusions, making truly ludicrous comparisons -- frequently to satisfy the capricious Zeitgeist.

****

Retirement is too big a word; what we basically want is withdrawal from bureaucracy,  so that we are free to do what we feel is really important.  Better old outside and young inside, than young outside and hopelessly decrepit inside.

***

 

Law is a tool to bring order into chaos. As such, it is a means, not an end. As a normative manifestation of power, law expresses the will, the priorites and sometimes the values of the sovereign. Law is not coterminous with justice; in fact, it may and is frequently used to maintain and legitimize an unjust social order, a system of exploitation, an uequal distribution of resources. The maxim "might is right" reflects the power equation, not any moral or categorical imperative (Kant) dictated by reason or deontology. It is for the philosophers -- and poets -- to infuse ethics into power ! It is for civil society to demand it.

 

A shockingly new idea, a controversial new prespective, an uncomfortable new paradigm first meets with fierce opposition, then with marginalization and silence, finally it is accepted as self-evident.

The two-party system is, alas, only twice as democratic as the one-party system.

***

The war on terror is a rhetorical war just like the war on poverty, and, alas, poverty won.

***

Education entails the faculty to think independently, apply criteria and arrive at individual judgment, even when different from consensus. It should awaken curiosity, discard taboos, formulate new questions, seek different perspectives, engage logic and coherence, strengthen ethics and intellectual honesty vis á vis others - and ourselves. This faculty of independent thinking, which is the very core of education, remains true even when we forget factual knowledge. Indoctrination, which thrives on uncritical repetition, deference to authority and peer pressure, has nothing to do with education..

Our goal can be somewhat less than trying to change the world. Helping a couple of people is fine too.

The legitimacy and credibility of law rests on its uniform application. Thus, there must not be any favouritism, because in law "one size fits all". The rule of law means the rule of non-arbitrariness, which knows no service à la carte. More fundamentally, although justice is not identical with law, justice requires that law be consistent with ethical values. Law should not follow politics, but it is politics that must follow law.

Societies can be animistic, pantheistic, atheistic, polytheistic, monotheistic -- or, like ours -- moneytheistic.

Civilization, as we know it, developed when nomads settled down, domesticated animals, invented the plow, grew wheat and vine, started baking bread and fermentig grape juice into wine ... O fortunatos nimium, sua si bona norint, Agricolas! Quibus ipsa procul discordibus armis fundit humo facilem victum iustissima tellus.(Vergilius, Georgics, ii, 458).

A “failed State” is not just a State with a troubled economy or with a dysfunctional administration. It is also a State that cannot live in peace with its neighbours.

If we take more time to enjoy what we do have, we will have that less time to belly-ache about what we still lack.

Serendipity goes beyond carpe diem, carpe noctem, beyond grasping at fortuity.. It means winning the game and holding on, remaining alert to fortune's many moods.

Tomorrow is one day more – and one less.

Good governance is more than mere alliteration -- it entails applying Logos rather than legalism, practicing proportion rather than perfection, preferring peace and pluralism over populism, promoting justice instead of jealousy -- and in budget matters employing more mathematics and less metaphors.

Politicians and generals go into history books. Musicians go into the hearts of generations of grateful listeners. Wellington, Blücher, Grant, Eisenhower, Motgommery, de Gaule, Zhukov are long dead. Beethoven lives!

Fortunately for mankind, glory is ephemeral and fame fades fast. Otherwise even more megalomaniacs would enter the fray and plague the rest of us in the process.

Peace is not just the absence of war. It means abandoning the aggressive animus and the will to exploit other nations and peoples. It requires closing down the criminal arms industry that fuels conflict throughout the world. More than that, peace implies the presence of something positive -- not just an absence of evil. It entails the presence of good will, a striving for harmony, the exercise of solidarity, the quest for justice -- that possible dream we once read about in the Sermon on the Mount.

Good politicians are pessimists in analysis but optimists in action.

Progress depends on tempered enthusiasm rather than on hot tempers. Met drift kom je nergens, met geestdrift overal.

Collateral benefit is a form of serendipity – the joy of finding something unexpected when one is busy looking for something else

Human dignity transcends quantification and knows no competition, for respect is due to rich and poor alike. The dignitas humana has no room for privilege and exploitation; all victims deserve solidarity, recognition and rehabilitation without discrimination. Justice is not a beauty contest, but a conscious vindication of human dignity

There is no clash of civilizations, but rather the clash of narrow-minded politicians who pretend that theirs is the only civilization.

Hero worship is for adolescents, convenient mythologies for adults, caricatures for the elites, instrumentalized trivia for the hoi polloi -- quite a circus of institutionalized self-deception for one and all.

The Manichaean world view lacks the poetry of nuances, of the good within the bad, the bad within the good, the poetry of ambiguity.

Collateral benefit is a form of serendipity – the joy of finding something unexpected when one was busy looking for something else.

Objectivity does not exclude poetry.

Creation is divine -- and very much human: from writing a love poem, to composing a symphony, to inventing a flower arrangement, to baking a cheese cake, to singing Panis angelicus.

Truth is in the nuances.
Hero worship is for adolescents, convenient mythology for adults, caricature for the elites, instrumentalized trivia for the hoi polloi -- quite a circus of institutionalized self-deception for one and all.

Doing always the right thing does not automatically yield the good result.

Coping with great misfortune is sometimes easier than accepting banal inconveniences.

Failure is not per se punishment, nor does it entail guilt. Often enough it is the guilty who are successful and the innocent who lose.

Integrity entails living in the midst of lies and not falling for them, facing adversity without losing one’s sense of proportion.

Self-respect often requires stoic perseverance -- even when there are no followers.

Self-preservation takes precedence over revenge.

Some politicians indulge more in science fiction than in government.

A politician should be pessimistic in analysis but optimistic in action.

Cognitive dissonance occurs not only in politics, but also in human relations. How often does a lover pursue the shadow of his own infatuation? There are many Don Quijotes still yearning for their own imaginary Dulcineas.

War is the great destroyer – not only of human beings, but also of values.
“Clash of civilizations” is an euphemism for the animus to aggress others.

Human dignity transcends quantification and knows no competition.

Justice is not a beauty contest, but a conscious vindication of human dignity

There were good guys on all sides of the Peloponnesian war, the Punic wars, Julius Caesar’s campaigns, the “Reconquista”, the French revolution, the American Civil War, the Bolshevist revolution, the Spanish Civil War, at Verdun and at Stalingrad. There is never a monopoly of good or evil in any human conflict.

The essential homo sapiens evolves slowly. I bet that Neanderthal children threw snowballs at each other with as much gusto as 21st century lads.

The habits and expectations of modern man are scarcely conducive to happiness. Whereas everything good that happens to us is perceived as natural and we take it for granted, we are surprised and frustrated over every stone in our path. We would be happier if we would only learn to count our blessings.

When you take a nation’s past away, you also destroy its future

God obviously prefers carnivores to vegetarians, otherwise he would have given the same attention to Cain’s veggies as to Abel’s lamb offerings.

Mankind is not peaceful by nature. Violence was with us from the start – four human beings and already one murder!

God is not an advocate of an eye-for-an eye: Cain was banished, not killed because of murdering his brother.

It is easier to endure long misfortune than to prolong a state of happiness.

Good men do not always get what they deserve. Nor do the bad.

Commercial rivalries cause even more wars than religious differences.

Rulers can afford to be generous and enlightened after they have suppressed or even exterminated the opposition.

Morality lessons are easy to impart after a position of force has been secured, usually by immoral means.

Academic work is both drudgery and passion.

Not every philosopher has worthy disciples. Socrates lucked out with Plato, Plato with Aristotle. But Socrates failed to instill modesty and measure on his pupil Alcibiades, an egomaniac cheat, who never understood the meaning of moderation (meden agan, metron ariston), while Aristotle had the disappointment of tutoring Alexander (for some “the Great”), who started as a megalomaniac and grew into a genocidal killer – and drunkard.

Man is born into a culture and religion and has a limited number of roles to play.
While perfectly coherent within a given epistemology, outside this specific cultural or religions context, man’s actions may appear illogical or even irrational. Thus, while St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas were doubtless brilliant thinkers, their legacy is not accessible outside the Christian faith. For non-believers, much of Aquinas’ reasoning may appear circular; to a traditional Christian, Muhammad remains inaccessible.

True scholarship is free of loyalties.

The scholar does not root for a team but remains aloof of the media fray.

Insisting on justice often only prolongs the pain. Experience teaches you to cut your losses and turn the page.

Dogs show immediate enthusiasm for other dogs and socialize with them readily – size, race or colour notwithstanding. Why don’t humans get more enthused over other humans ?

Imperialism, whether military or economic, was never benign.

Imperialism -- whether American, British, French, German, Ancient Greek, Roman or Persian – never endeared the masters to their subjects.

Realpolitik is more akin to opportunism than to patriotism.

Patriotism means very different things to different people. You may call it a cocktail of self-deception and bravado, a form of mental masturbation, rooting for a political party as you root for a football team, a readiness to rape.

Heroism is a cocktail of brazenness and patriotism. For some, a manifestation of stubbornness – fighting unto death for a personal conviction or even for a caprice.

Genuine patriotism entails a striving for political and social justice. It is not “my country right or wrong”, but “let’s work to make this country just”.
The cult of heroism is a totalitarian tool.

Every totalitarian regime has its saints.

Christianity has done many bad things such as the Crusades, the Inquisition, and Pope Alexander VI’s Bull Inter Cetera. But it has also done glorious things -- immeasurably enriched us by inventing musical notation (the monk Guido of Arezzo!), inspired Johann Sebastian Bach, Franz Schubert, gave outlet to all forms of artistic expression -- from the poetry of the Gothic Cathedral to the humanity of Michelangelo’s Pieta. The Beatitudes will always be an antidote to despair, consolation in mourning, hope in hope.

Religion is awe of nature plus a moral code.

Religion is more than rituals and sacraments, but belief in cosmic justice and commitment to truth -- helping other human beings – or at least not hurting them!

Pseudo-religion is the instrumentalization of fear for purposes of power.

The sun shines on the just and unjust alike. In its light, justice can be seen by all who have eyes, but some would hide justice in the shadow of their own agendas.

Competition does not exclude caritas.

Lessons learned are all too quickly unlearned.

Asymmetrical love lasts longer

Freedom of thought means freedom from mental models and the temerity to think the unthinkable.

Post-Cartesian logic:
Cogito libere, ergo ego sum. (I think independently, therefore I am myself).
Liber sum, ergo possum cogitare. (I am free, therefore I can think).

Axiom: “Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored."
-- Aldous Huxley, Proper Studies, 1927
Corollary: “Popular myths are not necessarily facts”

Retributive justice is hardly justice when it only reflects the top-dog/underdog syndrome. Restorative justice offers greater credibility and sustainability if it is based on the recognition of root causes, the mutual acknowledgment of errors, and is future-oriented, inspired by a genuine reconciliation paradigm.

Even those who have no future do have a human right to dream.

No one has the “right” to be a billionaire. Great fortunes are made thanks to the existence of a market – which is not an individual achievement, but rather the result of collective action by society at large. Whoever benefits from the marketplace owes it to the rest of society to share the profit with the collectivity. This is done by philanthropy -- and progressive taxation. Wealth is just and respectable as the merited reward for incentive. Taking a greater share of the pie than one deserves is but vulgar greed.

Property is a legal fiction to describe certain powers of disposition over material things
Property in rem is subject to taxation; property in personam is chattel slavery. "Ownership" is ephemeral, since we can exchange, dispose of or otherwise lose property, and after death we "can't take it with us!". Even in our lifetime, the idea that a human being “owns” a tree appears rather implausible. One may carve a sweetheart's name on a oak, one may chop down a conifer and make a chair out of it, but one never really owns the tree.

Freedom of expression is meaningful if one has an opinion to express.  Opinion is based on factual knowledge and an appreciation of the various points of view.  Freedom of expression would have little value if it only meant the right to echo what one receives from the media. More important is the right to think freely and to exchange views so as to develop one’s own conception of things. Thus, the manipulation of information is just as dangerous when it is done by the private sector (CNN, Fox) as when it is imposed by governmental authority.  The crucial test is whether the people have the information needed to formulate opinions and take decisions thereon, or whether they are just victims of manipulation.

 

An art lover who internalizes a painting has more ownership of it than a person who buys it and hangs it in his living room.

Tolerance is good, but frequently patronizing. Respect entails more: the acceptance of the other's right to be, even his right to be wrong.

It is relatively easy to find confirmation for a pet theory or hypothesis. What is crucial is to test the logic of competing theories and conscientiously look for refutation.

Being is immesurably more than doing

Freedom is the choice to swim with or against the current. Swimming only with the current misses out on a world of other possibilities. Freedom means adventure, even at the risk of drowning. It is more important to deepen than to lengthen life, more existential to pause than to rush by. Millennia ago there was neither politics nor law.  Humans were hunters and gatherers and survived from hand to mouth, from day to day.  Primitive politics manifested itself as brute force, but soon the chiefs themselves recognized the necessity to legitimize their rule and secure a degree of social stability by enacting commandments, laws and ultimately constitutions that conferred primacy to the ”rule of law” and were administered by a higher caste of lawyers and  judges.  Gradually a more sophisticated system of checks and balances emerged.  Today the clock cannot be turned back and no politician is legibus solutus or above the law . Theft is not only robbing a bank or burglarizing a jewellery shop.  It is also looting enterprises through abusively high salaries, unearned bonuses, luxury expense accounts, overpaid consultancies and golden handshakes, plundering stock markets through insider trading, playing casino at commodity markets, pilfering a nation's natural wealth through "privatization", adamantly keeping the booty of centuries of imperialism, pretending it is tabula rasa for theft, exploiting the weak through new forms of economic colonialism, keeping bonuses and tax breaks given to TNCs as incentives to open businesses and then relocating elsewhere where labour costs are lower, extorting interest from poor nations once induced to take unnecessary loans they could never repay.  In his Sonnets to Orpheus Rilke gave wings to his feeling that: “Gesang ist Dasein” which approximately translates as “singing is being”.  Maybe the converse is even truer:  Being is serenade, symphony, opera, rhythm, dance!