"The
plural of anecdote is not data," said Frank Kotsonis. "A
journey of a thousand miles starts with an airline ticket. Unless
you're crazy," observed aphorist Chad Carter. "We campaign
in poetry; we govern in prose," said President Jed Bartlet
of TV's "West Wing." "Where there's Saddam, there's
Gomorrah," said author and blogger Stefan Kanfer of Stefan
Kanfer's Gadflights.
"Nobody
ever went to a ballgame to see the umpire," said Chief Justice
John Roberts, talking about the properly modest role of judges.
Ann Coulter, typically sharper than your average aphorist, said:
"When conservative judges strike down laws, it's because
of what's in the Constitution. When liberal judges strike down
laws, it's because of what's in The New York Times."
"Every
liberal thinks he's intellectually superior to conservatives;
every conservative I know wants to think of himself as morally
superior," said former Clinton administration official Paul
Begala. "Whichever side denounces the other for politicizing
the issue is losing the argument," said Rep. Barney Frank.
Columnist
and author David Brooks wrote: "If the true thing is obvious
and boring, the liberal person will go off and say something original,
even if it is completely idiotic. This is how deconstructionism
got started." (Conservatives, when they stumble on a new
idea, tend to keep saying it over and over, he said at length
too excessive for an aphorism.)
Blogger Megan
McArdle, who writes under the name "Jane Galt" at Asymmetrical
Information, offered "Jane's Law: The devotees of the party
in power are smug and arrogant. The devotees of the party out
of power are insane."
In the Hawks
vs. Doves sweepstakes, Charles Moore wrote in the Daily Telegraph
of London: "Remember that the hawk is a bird that can see
things from a long way off." A less serious reflection on
hawkishness came from thriller-writer Joseph Finder: "Hawks
may soar, but chipmunks don't get sucked into jet engines."
North Korean
dictator Kim Jong-Il issued a sort of aphorism this month: "The
destiny of a nation is a destiny of an individual, and the latter's
life is guaranteed by the former's life." This needs work.
Try this version, KJI: "Live for the state and the state
will live for you."
Author Tammy
Bruce, writing about the cult of victimology, wrote: "When
your victimhood is your empowerment, recovery is the enemy."
"Heroes don't have to be public figures; they can be right
in your family," said Billy Crystal, referring to his mother
and father. Crediting his mother, law professor and blogger Eugene
Volokh of The Volokh Conspiracy wrote: "Other people's children
always grow up more quickly."
"Any
law named after a person is bad law," wrote law professor
and blogger Glenn Reynolds of InstaPundit. "The right to
offend is far more important than any right not to be offended,"
said Andrew Sullivan. "You can't defend except by offense,"
said Donald Rumsfeld, taking the offensive. "Corruption keeps
us safe and warm," says a cynical character in the movie
"Syriana."
Michael Kinsley
wrote: "If hypocrisy is the tribute vice pays to virtue,
piousness is virtue paying tribute to itself." Writer Mark
Steyn said, "Multiculturalism is a kind of societal Stockholm
Syndrome." In The Washington Post, Ruth Marcus wrote:
"Diversity at the expense of quality is no virtue, but quality
without diversity is nonetheless a vice." Aphorist Mauro
Cherubini said, "Computers make it easier to do a lot of
things, but most of the things they make it easier to do don't
need to be done."
"There
is nothing quite so powerful as an idea whose time has passed,"
said David Frum. "Many people think the purpose of their
faith is to make THEM feel good," said aphorist Lee Frank.
"Politics is kind of like sport for old guys" said Mitt
Romney, governor of Massachusetts. "On a net basis, modernity
is good for you," said the late Wall Street Journal
editor Robert Bartley.
The late
media critic David Shaw, lamenting the number of chatterers it
takes to broadcast Air America, said: "It shouldn't take
a village to raise a radio program." Entrepreneur Bo Peabody
said: "The vast majority of the press is not concerned in
covering what is actually happening. They are interested in covering
what they think people want to think is actually happening."
"Falsetto
is the highest expression of emotion," said press critic
Jack Shafer. Chris Browne, the cartoonist of "Hagar the Horrible,"
said, "Everybody has to believe in something -- I believe
I'll have another drink."
