Following my previous posts on two favorite American aphorists, Mae West and Yogi Berra, I now move to Poland for additional thought provoking aphorisms. Stanislaw J. Lec (1909–1966), a Polish aphorist, poet, and an avowed communist, became notorious for his pithy observations, despite his unpopular political views. I quote a few below:

Human activity:

— “He who limps is still walking.”
— “Don’t trust the heart, it wants your blood.”
— “Youth is the gift of nature, but age is a work of art.”
— “The moment of recognizing your own lack of talent is a flash of genius.”
— “When you jump for joy, beware that no one moves the ground under your feet.”

Uncertainty:

— “Beyond each corner, new directions lie in wait.”
— “On the top of each peak your are on the edge of an abyss.”
— “Do not ask God the way to heaven; he will show you the hardest one.”
— “The first requisite for immortality is death.”

Political action:

— “In a war of ideas, it is the people who get killed.”
— “Is it progress if a cannibal uses a fork?”
— “No snowflake in an avalanche ever feels responsible.”
— “You can close your eyes to reality, but not to memories.”

Respecting the last quote, Lec experienced the reality of two World Wars, the Great Depression, and imprisonment within a German work camp, which suggests that few of his memories reached a happy plateau. Mostly, he worked as a writer for communist periodicals and participated in the communist movement, leading to his departure from Poland to escape government arrest before WW II. After German occupation, he returned to Poland to write many pro-Soviet pieces, including praise for Stalin, resulting in his imprisonment. After his second failed escape attempt, he was sentenced to death, but succeeded in his third attempt, reportedly killing his assigned executioner with the shovel he used while digging his own grave. (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanislaw_Jerzy_Lec)

Despite his tragic life story, he wrote many thoughtful aphorisms, including those above. He died young, before the Berlin Wall tumbled down.

Following my previous post, an aphorism collection of Mae West, I now turn to another famous American icon: Yogi Berra, known for his clever malaprop sayings, some of which he actually said. Most everyone can quote a favorite Yogi-ism; some of my favorites appear below:

He starred in a LITE beer commercial, which scored high on the ratings chart. Yogi, held up a can of LITE beer and said: “Everybody I know drinks LITE beer. And if they don’t — I don’t know them.” I wonder how many barrels of beer sold as a result of that quip.

Some keen observations:
— “You can observe a lot by just watching;”
— “It’s like deja vu all over again;”
— “It ain’t over until its over;”
— “The future ain’t what it used to be.”
— “Baseball is ninety percent mental, and the other half is physical.”

Some cogent advice:
— “When you come to a fork in the road, take it.”
— “Always go to people’s funerals, otherwise they won’t go to yours.”
— “Nobody goes there nowadays, it’s too crowded.”
— “Never answer an anonymous letter.”
— “If you don’t know where you are going, you may wind up someplace else.”

Some startling conclusions:
— “A nickel isn’t worth a dime anymore.”
— “We made too many wrong mistakes.”
— “Slump? I ain’t in no slump . . . I just ain’t hitting.”
— “You wouldn’t have won if we’d beaten you.”
— “It was impossible to get a conversation going, everybody was talking too much.”

Two perfectly clear instructions:
— “Pair up in threes.”
— “Cut the pizza in four pieces because I’m not hungry enough to eat six.”

And when asked about his many aphorisms, Yogi responded truthfully:
— “I never said most of the things I said.”