© Copyright, Princeton University Press. No part of this book may be distributed, posted, or reproduced in any form by digital or mechanical means without prior written permission of the publisher. Introduction A LINE This is a short book on the shortest of genres—the aphorism. As a basic unit of intelligible thought, this microform has persisted across world cultures and histories, from Confucius to Twitter, Heraclitus to Nietzsche, the Buddha to Jesus. Opposed to the babble of the foolish, the redundancy of bureaucrats, the silence of mystics, in the aphorism nothing is superfluous, every word bears weight. Its minimal size is charged with maximal intensity. Consider Heraclitus’ “Nature loves to hide”; Jesus’ “The kingdom of God is within you”; Pascal’s “The eternal silence of these infinite spaces terrifies me”; or Nietzsche’s “If a temple is to be erected, a temple must be destroyed.” These aphorisms have an atomic quality— compact yet explosive. Yet in comparison to the rich theories and thick histories of the novel, lyric, or drama, the aphorism— this most elemental of literary forms—ha s been curiously understud- ied, a vast network of literary and philosophical archipelagos that has so far been thinly explored. At a time when a presidency can 1 For general queries, contact
[email protected] © Copyright, Princeton University Press. No part of this book may be distributed, posted, or reproduced in any form by digital or mechanical means without prior written permission of the publisher. 2 INTRODUCTION be won and social revolutions ignited by 140– character posts (now 280), an analysis of the short saying seems to be as crucial as ever.