Quotes from the World for Wednsday 05/22/MMXIII

Aphorisms are essentially an aristocratic genre of writing. The aphorist does not argue or explain, he asserts; and implicit in his assertion is a conviction that he is wiser and more intelligent than his readers.

W.H. Auden
W.H. (Wystan Hugh) Auden (1907–73), Anglo-U.S. poet. Foreword, The Viking Book of Aphorisms. A Personal Selection, ed. with Louis Kronenberger, Viking (1962).