The most recent in my series of aphorisms that have captured my attention.

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I’ve long been a fan of the pithy proverb—a quote or bit of advice that contains truth in 20 words or less. The New York Times reports that “social media is an aphorism machine” but my love for the short and to-the-point adage is much more old school, coming from my Grandmother Brown who was known to say things such as: “The graveyard is full of people who thought the world couldn’t get along without them.”

I admit I might have heard that particular one when she thought I was getting too big for my britches. Grandmother, who passed away in January of 1981, was definitely not a social media influencer, although her life had a great impact on mine.

Seven years ago I began showcasing these pithy proverbs in a feature entitled More to Consider. After using the fifth year to highlight some personal favorites, I have returned to my regular habit of collecting new ones and posting them in summaries twice a year. * So, as one of my favorites instructs us . . .

“Pay attention. Be astonished. Tell about it.”

Mary Oliver

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HOPE, JOY, BELIEF . . . AND FEET

One of my mentors is the Rev. Dr. Francis H. Wade, and back in 2021 I was reading some of Frank’s writings on hope and joy. And belief. And feet. As we step into what we see as reality we too often lose the reality of a generous, more imaginative, more joyful perspective. Perhaps our hope can be regained when we ground it in our natal memory.

Hope needs to lead to action, however, if we want it to be more than a feel good placebo. Which is where belief and feet come into play. We have to believe in a better future, a better world. Frank suggests that hope is “hearing the music of the future; belief is dancing to it.” 

Frank, like my grandmother, is his own aphorism machine!

We often like to think of a world without injustice in the abstract. But Frank sets the record straight.

“I want something for my head. Instead, I am given something for my feet. Not a thing to understand, but a way to live.”

Over the past six months I have highlighted several sayings that helped me understand why hope, joy, belief, and action are so important to living into the life we are meant to live. I’ll begin with a writer who suggests that the simple act of winding the clock (or whatever the twenty-first century equivalent is) is an act of hope and anticipation.

“Hang onto your hat. Hang onto your hope. And wind the clock, for tomorrow is another day.”

E.B. White

A comedian and a historian both suggest that we have more agency to change the world than we often realize.

“No matter what people tell you, words and ideas can change the world.”    

Robin Williams

“To live now as we think human beings should live, in defiance of all that is bad around us, is itself a marvelous victory.”

Howard Zinn

Pope Leo XIV quotes St. Augustine about the importance of making sure that our actions begin with self-examination and commitment—there are those feet again—while Father Richard Rohr casts sainthood in a different light than what we often hear in church.

“If we want to change the times, if we want the world to live in peace, we must begin with ourselves” 

Pope Leo XIV quoting St. Augustine

“Saints are those who wake up while in this world, instead of waiting for the next one.”

Richard Rohr

And I’ll give Frank the last word in this section, as he brings belief to life.

“With the tragic events of Holy Week and the similarly tragic events in the news, it is important to remember that our faith does not explain the world. It guides us through a world we cannot understand.”

The Rev. Dr. Francis Wade

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KINDNESS, COMMUNITY, LOVE

Many of my teachers and mentors push us to think differently about reality and what’s true. Historian and activist Rebecca Solnit turns our perception about wealth on its head.

“What if we imagined wealth as consisting of joy, beauty, friendship, community, closeness to flourishing nature, to clean air and water, to good food produced without abuse of labor or nature?”

Rebecca Solnit

Lao Tzu and Martin Luther King, Jr. both ask us to think about love with a wider perspective.

“Kindness in words creates confidence. Kindness in thinking creates profoundness. Kindness in giving creates love.”

Lao Tzu

“Power at its best is love implementing the demands of justice, and justice at its best is power correcting everything that stands against love.”

The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Father Rohr reminds us that forgiveness is at the heart of love. Oscar Wilde has another (ahem) take on forgiveness.

“Without forgiveness the logic of victimhood and perpetrator rules instead of the illogic of love.” 

Richard Rohr

“Always forgive your enemies; nothing annoys them so much.” 

Oscar Wilde

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OTHER WORDS OF WISDOM

And finally, I included words of wisdom found from a wide variety of teachers, beginning with one of the greatest geniuses the world has ever known. Then Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel reminds us of how we truly understand the world: we face it with awe and wonder.

“Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication”

Leonardo da Vinci

“The beginning of awe is wonder, and the beginning of wisdom is awe.”

Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel

Timothy Snyder and Carl Jung remind us of the dangers of individuals and governments who lie to get us to believe their version of reality, even when the lie is easily disproved (e.g., see Greenwatergate).

“Be alert to the use of the words ‘extremism’ and ‘terrorism.’ Be alive to the fatal notions of ‘emergency’ and ‘exception.’ Be angry about the treacherous use of patriotic vocabulary.”

Timothy Snyder in On Tyranny

“A lie would make no sense unless the truth was felt to be dangerous.”

Carl Jung

Quaker activist Parker J. Palmer ventures into the “don’t get too big for your britches” territory that my grandmother also favored.

“Today’s peacock is tomorrow’s feather duster.”

Parker J. Palmer quoting his father

I’ll give the last word to Rebecca Solnit, one of my favorites. Solnit always likes to remind us, often through the use of great images, that history does not follow a linear path. And there is always more history to come.

“Cause and effect assumes history marches forward, but history is not an army. It is a crab scuttling sideways, a drip of soft water wearing away stone, an earthquake breaking centuries of tension.”

Rebecca Solnit

“We are always in one way or another in the middle of the story.”

Rebecca Solnit

More to come . . .

DJB

* After the initial More to Consider post pulling together the first group highlighted, I brought out Volume 2: A plethora of pithy proverbs followed with Volume 3: A profusion of pithy proverbs and Volume 4: A plentitude of pithy proverbs. I finally turned to the Super Bowl system (minus the pretentious Roman numerals) with I love the pithy proverb — Volume 5, Volume 6, Volume 7, Volume 8, and Volume 9. For Volume 10, I highlighted some personal favorites from the first nine editions. Then I returned last year to post new ones in Volume 11. Beginning in July of 2026, I’m going to feature a year full of important quotes about America, in honor of our 250th anniversary (and in hope that by thinking about the ideals that formed us, we can return to a path leading towards a more perfect union.)

Photo of proverbs from Pixabay