Geary's Guide to the World's Great AphoristsBoth an expert and a collector, James Geary has devoted his life to aphorisms-and the last few years to organizing, indexing, and even translating them. The result is Geary's Guide, featuring aphorists like Voltaire, Twain, Shakespeare, Nietzsche, Woody Allen, Muhammad Ali, Emily Dickinson, and Mae West, as well as international practitioners appearing in English for the first time. But it is more than just a conventional anthology. It is also an encyclopedia, containing brief biographies of each author in addition to a selection of his or her aphorisms. The book is a field guide, too, with aphorists organized into eight different "species," such as Comics, Critics & Satirists; Icons & Iconoclasts; and Painters & Poets. The book's two indexes-by author and by subject-make it easily searchable, while its unique organizational structure and Geary's lively biographical entries set it apart from all previous reference works. A perfect follow-up to Geary's New York Times bestseller The World in a Phrase, Geary's Guide is eminently suitable for browsing or for sustained reading. A comprehensive guide to our most intimate, idiosyncratic literary form, the book is an indispensable tool for writers and public speakers as well as essential reading for all language lovers. |
Contents
Be Sincere Be Brief Be Seated | 1 |
Icons and Iconoclasts | 68 |
Moralists Major and Minor | 109 |
Novelists and Playwrights | 181 |
Old Souls and Oracles | 218 |
Painters and Poets | 259 |
Philosophers and Theorists | 315 |
Strange Beasts | 356 |
Afterisms | 391 |
| 417 | |
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
Additional aphorisms apho aphorist artist beautiful became become beginning believe better Bierce born Chuang Tzu critic death Ekelund enemies essays Essential Aphorisms everything evil experience eyes EZRA POUND famous father fear feel fool fortune France French Friedrich Friedrich Nietzsche friends genius Georg Christoph Lichtenberg George Germany give greatest happiness heart human ideas Kraus La Rochefoucauld Lichtenberg literary literature live London look MADELEINE DE SOUVRÉ man's MARIE VON EBNER-ESCHENBACH maxims Michel de Montaigne mind moral never Nietzsche novels once one's ourselves Parallel Lines person philosophy play poems poet poetry political proverbs published RALPH WALDO EMERSON religion Rochefoucauld Sablé satirical someone Stanislaw Jerzy Lec stories things thou thought trans Translated truth Twain United Kingdom wisdom wise words writing wrote York young