Aphorisms
As many truths in as few words as possible
Last updated: Jun 11, 2026
What is an aphorism? It’s a tool for deep thinking, a compass that points one toward a universal truth.
This is an organic library of aphorisms (with some maxims mixed in), written and curated by me. It doubles as a crude map of my personal philosophy. I’ll add to and cut from this list semi-regularly. Hopefully, it will become more compressed and more compelling over time.
Autonomy, Humanity, Meaning, Mortality, Truth, Creativity, Relationships, Ambition
Autonomy
There is no best way to go, but there is a worst way: to follow. Learn from others, lead yourself.
Do you have an acquiescing will or one agentic?
Reverence, never deference.
Nothing you want will feed you, so don’t feed your wanting. And everything you need, beyond sustenance and safety, you will only find within you.
My thoughts are not me.
Expect nothing from the world and the world of yourself.
You guarantee your fate by believing it; every prophesy that comes true is self-fulfilling.
Stagnation is evil, but stillness is essential.
Love your home not for what it gives you but for where it dares you to go.
We each know what is right. The only question is whether we will delude ourselves enough to justify doing wrong.
See the world through the eyes of a lamb; walk through it like a wolf.
Man is poisoned by the habit of self-delusion, and the only antidote is introspection.
Humanity
We each have an illimitable essence; the primary characteristic of man is his ineffability.
Somnio, ergo sum homo. Homo sum, ergo somnio.
Masculine energy is in the world. Feminine energy is of the world.
Suffering is a fact of life, and life is how you respond to the fact.
Anti-natalism is a form of natural selection.
Contrary to popular dogma, sex may be the only thing we have in common with God: procreative power.
Sin is not man’s propensity to miss but our ability to aim.
Meaning
There is no meaning to retrieve but all the meaning to give.
Go to church for the sermon, not for salvation.
I exist in service to no one other than the highest conceivable version of my self.
God is the self idealized, and I am God unrealized.
Enlightenment is the cessation of one’s desire for deliverance.
The more aimless your wandering, the more wondrous it will be.
The path towards whatever lies beyond is through the pitch-dark abyss at the core of my center-less self, within which there is a kernel of clear light.
Everything I’m after, I’ve had before, as early as the womb, and I will be at peace again if I can only just remember.
Mortality
Birth is a leap, and death is a landing. Living can either feel like falling or flying.
Life is the whole cake. Living is the icing.
We humans have these infinite concepts of what could be, yet we are stuck in the finite concrete of reality.
We must imagine Sisyphus happy and the willful, Eden-bound Eve as miserable.
In the course of my life, I will spend hours contemplating suicide, so that I don’t consider it for a second.
Today is heavy because it’s all you’re guaranteed. Today is light because you have the freedom to determine tomorrow.
In life there is no resolution, only infinitely recurring revolutions.
A day is a life, and sleep is practice for death.
Truth
The ego is truth-averse; it seeks only comfort.
It’s funny how far certainty catapults us from the truth.
Be an intellectual nomad; don’t dwell in dogma.
The skeptic is not one who dogmatically doubts but one who doubts dogma.
The only way to end your education is to become a know-it-all or a can’t-learn-at-all. To keep learning, you need a paradoxical blend of intellectual humility and confidence: “I know nothing. I can learn anything.”
Change is the only certainty. To be certain of anything else is to be in denial of change.
The dead are wiser than any of us and their wisdom inaccessible to us living.
Seek and you shall find that the seeking is all you need.
A life lived in pursuit of Truth is one lived unreconciled.
The least illusory part of reality is the presence of other people. And the most real-feeling part of a dream is the illusion that other people are present.
Creativity
To reveal something about the forest, write about a leaf.
If you want to write like Thoreau, put down Walden right this second, and instead, read all of Emerson.
Stillness is a prerequisite for creativity; ideas come from aimlessness.
The heart holds your darlings. The head hunts them.
My mind barely moves unless my body has already.
If you want your message to be remembered, edit it for meter as much as meaning.
The editor’s job is not to insist on better words but to intuit the words the author intends and has yet to apprehend.
Grammar is not oppressive. Or, if it is, it is only as oppressive as gravity. Grammar doesn’t keep you down; it keeps you grounded.
Writing is an act of the ego. Editing is the opposite.
Relationships
Say what you know is unsaid.
Give unsolicited praise and criticism upon request.
Remember: People don’t know what they mean to you. You have to tell them.
Sacrifice is a vice; the virtue is devotion.
A relationship ought to supplement your individuality, not supplant it.
“Casual sex” is an oxymoron.
My satisfaction must not depend on your transformation; my transformation must not contend with your dissatisfaction.
Love is not “all you need.” It’s just one thing you can’t do without.
Endeavor to understand, not to be understood.
Express gratitude, and don’t expect it.
Transformation is a solitary process. Leave the pupa alone.
Ambition
Seek and you shall find that the seeking is all you need.
I need hubris enough to go after what I want and humility enough to receive what I need.
Success comes from repeated failure. If you want fertile soil, mix in manure.
Material success is misunderstood as a prerequisite for contentment. Contentment can emerge from any moment spent moving toward the immaterial objects of your ambition.
Do, do, do, then detach.
Venture to the mountain-tops, but live in the valley.
Satisfaction, or dissatisfaction, is the difference between expectation and reality.
The only path to greener grass is to tend to your lawn.
Cherish the middle-moments, because most of life happens between where you were and where you’re going. Very little of life is arriving.
There’s only one reason to give up something good: to go for something better. The problem is that you don’t know how good it is until it’s gone.
This too shall pass, so enjoy it while it lasts.
Raise your floor, not just your ceiling.
What do I want to reap tomorrow? is the same question as What must I sow today?
The best possible outcome requires that you detach from all possible outcomes. The stream accomplishes a waterfall not because it strives but because it abides.