L
uck of the Irish. We hear this expression most often around St. Patrick’s Day. And, it’s usually associated with leprechauns – the magical, smiling kind, like the one on boxes of Lucky Charms cereal.

So, when someone is said to have the Luck of the Irish, it’s understood to mean they have an unnatural tendency toward good fortune. However…  like a lot of other sayings, its original use tells a very different tale.

For starters, the leprechauns of Irish folklore are tricksy, mischievous little buggers (unlike the “wee person” represented by the General Mills company). According to Irish lore, they do indeed know the whereabouts of hidden treasure, but they can also be “bitterly malicious.”[1] So, even successful encounters with these supernatural beings are nothing short of treacherous.

Our “Lucky Charms” view of leprechauns is void of history and genuine Irish culture. Which is also the case with our current understanding of the expression “Luck of the Irish.”

A decided unlucky history.

As Irish satirist Jonathan Swift is credited with pointing out, historically speaking the luck of the Irish people has been positively abysmal.[2] Ireland was subordinated to English control beginning with Henry VIII, a conquest that began with a Norman invasion and was finally completed during the reigns of Elizabeth 1 and James 1.

Laws designed to fragment the estates of Irish landowners were put in place. And, like every successful colonizer, crown authorities employed brutal methods to squash resistance and exploit Ireland’s resources.[3]

An Gorta Mór

After centuries of such oppression, Ireland experienced an Gorta Mór  “The Great Hunger,” known to most of us as the “potato famine.”[4] A mid-famine sentiment regarding this devastating calamity is that “God sent the blight, but the English made the famine.”[5]

More than one historian has characterized Britain’s handling of the situation as a convenient opportunity to finally crush Irish refusal to toe the British line, which famously included an attachment to Catholicism.[6]

Whether exacerbated by socio-political motives or not, in a country of eight million, the famine resulted in the death of more than one million people.[7] And nearly two million departed Ireland, as emigration became the last refuge of a desperate people who saw it as their only hope of survival.[8]

A significant proportion of those emigrating made their way to the United States. And the trip across the Atlantic was no picnic. For many, the journey took place on what came to be known as “coffin ships,” so-titled because the mortality rate on these overcrowded ships was 30% or higher on some ships. This catastrophic mortality rate was caused by overcrowding, unsanitary conditions, malnutrition, and disease, a combination that ensured death was a constant presence.[9]

No Irish Need Apply

And when they got to America, the Irish refugees who survived their traumatic journey were frequently met with job listings and signs in places of business indicating “No Irish need apply.”[10] This attitude was fueled by images in media characterizing the Irish as uncivilized, depicting them with simian or pig-like features.[11]

What’s a recently landed son of Erin to do? Well…  the famine that drove so many Irish people from the nation of their birth happened to coincide with the California Gold Rush. Opportunity finally seemed to be knocking.

But availing themselves to this fortuitous prospect would entail another difficult journey for Irish immigrants, one that would require them to sail around the tip of South America, and would take four or five months to complete. If they could scrape together the funds for passage, that is.

An alternative to this lengthy sojourn was to take a shorter voyage to Panama, trek for a week through malarial territory using canoes and mules (risking not only malaria but cholera as well), then take another ship from the west coast of Panama to California.

Or they could travel over land, by way of the harsh western deserts and mountains, through (often hostile) Native American territory.[12]

Irish gold miners

However they got to California, these Irish gold miners clearly had a will to succeed and a drive to never give up. And that’s exactly what you need if you’re going to be digging and panning for gold.

This is not to say that other immigrants who made the same journey lacked a similar work ethic. But, the timing of the famine drove enough Irish immigrants to the gold rush that an inordinately high percentage of miners were Irish.

So, it only makes sense that a significant number of successful miners would be Irish. And, that’s precisely what happened. The most famous and successful miners were indeed of Irish descent.[13]

That’s the context the expression “Luck of the Irish” emerged from.

But as historian Edward T. O’Donnell points out, the phrase “carried with it a tone of derision as if to say, only by sheer luck, as opposed to brains, could these fools succeed.”[14] Which is nothing less than absurd given the work ethic required to be a successful gold miner, to say nothing of the grit and determination it took for these Irish immigrants to make it to California to begin with.

In Conclusion

Historically speaking the Irish were anything but lucky. What kind of luck gives rise to roughly centuries of invasion, colonization, exploitation, starvation and mass emigration?  Certainly not the kind we associate with the phrase “Luck of the Irish” on St. Patrick’s Day.

Not to mention the fact that the expression was originally intended as mockery, born of a certain jealousy, a sense of victimhood based in a lack of regard for Irish immigrants and what they had endured to make their way to America and become successful.

If you’ve ever had your hard work or years of preparation dismissed out of hand, then you have the Luck of the Irish as the expression was originally intended. If you, or someone you know has left their home country due to dire circumstances there, only to be despised and derided in the country they emigrate to in the hopes of a better life, they have the Luck of the Irish too.

Hopefully, knowing the original intent of this expression will give us pause as we throw it around next St. Patrick’s Day. Hopefully, knowing its original intent will remind us to acknowledge the hard work of those around us. And, hopefully… just maybe, it’ll help us recognize that others (especially those newly-arrived to the United  States) might have overcome tremendous adversity in order to achieve even a modicum of success.

#Luck of the Irish      #Aphorisms Unplugged     #The American Experience

Endnotes:

[1] Lady Wilde. Ancient Legends, Mystic Charms, and Superstitions of Ireland. Vol. 1. Boston: Tickner & Co., 1887.Pg 103.

[2] Lee, Peter. “Fancy some Irish luck? These Irish sayings about luck are for you.” Irish Central. https://www.irishcentral.com/culture/craic/fancy-some-irish-luck-these-irish-sayings-about-luck-are-for-you

[3] Miller, Kerby A. Emigrants and Exiles: Ireland and the Irish Exodus to North America. New York: Oxford University Press, 1985. Pp 16-25.

Lennon, Colm. Sixteenth Century Ireland – The Incomplete Conquest. Dublin: St. Martin’s Press,1995.

Canny, Nicholas P. The Elizabethan Conquest of Ireland: A Pattern Established, 1565–76. Sussex: Harvester Press Ltd, 1976.

[4] O’Neill, Joseph. The Irish Potato Famine. Edina, Minn.: ABDO Publishing Co., 2009. Pg 7.

[5] Bloy, Marjie. “The Irish Famine: 1845-9.” The Victorian Web. https://victorianweb.org/history/famine.html

[6] Coogan, Tim Pat. The Famine Plot: England’s  Role in Ireland’s Greatest Tragedy. New York: Palgrave McMillan, 2012.

Kinealy, Christine. This Great Calamity: The Irish Famine 1845-52. Boulder, Colorado: Roberts Rinehart Publishers, 1995.

O’Dowd, Niall. “Was the Irish Famine genocide by the British?” IrishCentral.com  Aug 20, 2018. https://www.irishcentral.com/news/irish-famine-genocide-british

[7] Kinealy, Christine. This Great Calamity: The Irish Famine 1845-52. Boulder, Colorado: Roberts Rinehart Publishers, 1995. Pg 251.

[8] Kinealy, Christine. This Great Calamity: The Irish Famine 1845-52. Boulder, Colorado: Roberts Rinehart Publishers, 1995. Pg 299.

O’Leary, Rachel. “Coffin Ships.” Irish Famine Exhibition. Dublin Museum. January 22, 2025.

[9] O’Leary, Rachel. “Coffin Ships.” Irish Famine Exhibition. Dublin Museum. January 22, 2025.

“Coffin ships: death and pestilence on the Atlantic.”  Irish Genealogy Toolkit. https://www.irish-genealogy-toolkit.com/coffin-ships.html

[10] Bulik, Mark. “1854: No Irish Need Apply.” September 8, 2015. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/08/insider/1854-no-irish-need-apply.html

[11] Forker, Martin. “The use of the ‘cartoonist’s armoury’ in manipulating public opinion: anti-Irish imagery in 19^th century British and American periodicals.” Journal of Irish Studies, 2012. Vol. 27 (2012) Pg. 59.

[12] Nolan, Philip. “How the Irish mined the gold rush.” Irish Daily Mail. August 10, 2019. https://www.pressreader.com/ireland/irish-daily-mail/20190810/282183652681471

[13] O’Donnell, Edward T. 1001 things everyone should know about Irish-American history. New York: Grammercy Books, 2002. Pg 226.

[14] O’Donnell, Edward T. 1001 things everyone should know about Irish-American history. New York: Grammercy Books, 2002. Pg 226.

Images:

Irish Clover:  Photo by Frames For Your Heart on Unsplash

Portrait of Jonathan  Swift: Charles Jervas (1718), National Gallery of Ireland. Public Domain.

An Gorta Mór : “Bridget O’Donnell.” Illustrated London News, December 22, 1849 – public domain.

No Irish Need Apply:  Bulik, Mark. “1854: No Irish Need Apply.” September 8, 2015. The New York Times.

Irish Gold Miner: ‘Ireland at the Diggings’: The Irish of the California Gold Rush Celebrate Home, 1853.” Irish in the American Civil War.

Celtic Knot: The Irish Road Trip.com

L
ike many mothers, my mom drilled the importance of being nice into my young psyche.  She used expressions like the direct and simple “be nice” to impart this lesson. As well as Thumper the rabbit’s ever-popular pearl of wisdom “if you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything at all.”  Not to mention Jimmy Durante’s “be nice to people on the way up, because you meet them on the way down.”[1]

And, then there’s the adage “it’s nice to be important, but more important to be nice.” These days, this aphorism is more relevant than ever.

We’ve heard it attributed to the likes of actor Tony Curtis, philanthropist John Templeton, and champion tennis player Roger Federer among others.[2]

Pretty good advice, really. But interestingly (although not surprisingly if you’ve been following Aphorisms Unplugged), there was a time when being nice was something to be avoided. And, referring to someone as nice would be rude and insulting.

Not because being polite, kind and respectful was a bad idea, but because nice meant something completely different.

During the 14^th century, when the word nice was first used in English, it meant to be “silly, or foolish.” Which makes sense, since the term made its way to English by way of early French from the Latin nescius, meaning ignorant.

By the 16^th century, nice became associated with a sense of being finicky, or very particular. Around that time it was also used to describe someone with an extravagant, flashy, ostentatious dress code.

It wasn’t until the 19^th century that the word nice came to mean polite, kind, respectful – and respectable – as we understand it today.[3]

That’s quite the etymological journey. I’d wager Mom didn’t know about all the twists and turns the word had taken when she encouraged me to be nice. But regardless of how long it took for the term to mean polite, kind, and respectful, being nice to one another is something we should all strive to do.

Endnotes:

[1] “Nice quotes.” Brainy Quote.  https://www.brainyquote.com/topics/nice-quotes

[2] “It’s Nice to Be Important, but More Important To be Nice.” Quote Investigator. April 12, 2017. https://quoteinvestigator.com/2017/04/12/nice/

[3] “Nice.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/nice.

“Nice.” Oxford English Dictionary. https://www.oed.com/dictionary/nice_adj?hide-all-quotations=true

Image:

Photo by ashok acharya on Unsplash

C
harity begins at home. We’ve all heard the expression. Usually in response to financial aid going to other nations. Or when we’re asked to donate to an organization that serves people outside our immediate circle.

“Charity begins at home” is effectively understood to mean charity ends at home. Once again, however, that is precisely the opposite of what this aphorism is actually meant to convey.

Sometimes that well-worn adage doesn’t really mean what our literal-minded, text-focused, Google-driven world thinks it means. One reason this happens is that, quite simply, language evolves.

To further complicate matters, as with books, all too often the context of these popular wisdoms has been forgotten. Though these aphorisms may still contain some good advice, their original message is typically richer and more profound than our contemporary interpretation.

This Book is Banned proffers a few proverbs, sayings, and other pearls of wisdom that have been “unplugged,” as it were. We’ve rebooted, gone back-to-basics, and re-discovered their intended message. For example:

Charity Begins at Home

Misunderstanding of the adage “charity begins at home” hinges on a shift in the interpretation of the word charity. These days, charity is understood as almsgiving, monetary donations to provide help for those in need – typically through organizations set up to do so.

But charity’s original meaning can be traced back to the 4th Century, when St. Jerome translated the Bible from Greek into Latin. [1] And, he translated the Greek agape (ἀγάπη) into the Latin charitas.

Charity is described as “a state and disposition of the heart.”[2] It is defined as the spirit of universal good-will that promotes a concern for the welfare of others, and as a result, calls good deeds into action. Monetary contributions are the manifestation of this altruistic state.[3]

The phrase “Charity begins at home” is often thought to have biblical origins, but it does not. The original understanding of charity is, however, considered a theological virtue. Sir Thomas Browne is credited with coining the phrase in his 1643 spiritual testament titled Religio Medici.[4]

Browne begins his observations on the virtue of charity by stating that, without it, “Faith is a meer notion.”[5] He continues by noting:

I have ever endeavoured to nourish the mercifull disposition, and humane inclination I borrowed from my Parents, and regulate it to the written and prescribed Lawes of Charity.[6]

In short, he learned the virtuous disposition known as charity, and received instruction about how to put it into practical action from his parents. Hence, “charity begins at home.”

Browne also points out that an unwillingness to help those in need is nothing short of sinful. That sin being pride, you know, one of the seven deadlies. Because it’s only “nimbler & conceited heads, that never [look] a degree beyond their nests.”[7]

.
Check out more unplugged proverbs, sayings,
and other pearls of wisdom here.

#aphorisms unplugged            #the art of reading

Endnotes:

[1] Taggart, Deborah R. “Charity.” Learning to Give.org    https://www.learningtogive.org/resources/charity

[2] Rev. T. H. Stokoe, M.A. The Use and Abuse of the Proverb, “Charity begins at home.” London: John Henry and James Parker, 1859. Pg 9.

[3] Rev. T. H. Stokoe, M.A. The Use and Abuse of the Proverb, “Charity begins at home.” London: John Henry and James Parker, 1859. Pg 8.

[4] Kastan, David Scott. “How This World Goes: On Shakespeare and Charity.” April 23, 2020. Beinecke Rare book & Manuscript Library.
https://beinecke.library.yale.edu/article/how-world-goes-david-scott-kastan-shakespeare-and-charity

[5] Sir Thomas Browne. Religio Medici. 1642.The Second Part. Section 1.
https://penelope.uchicago.edu/relmed/relmed.html

[6] Sir Thomas Browne. Religio Medici. 1642.The Second Part. Section 1.
https://penelope.uchicago.edu/relmed/relmed.html

[7] Sir Thomas Browne. Religio Medici. 1642.The Second Part. Section 8.
https://penelope.uchicago.edu/relmed/relmed.html

Image:

Charity Begins at Home:  Photo by Tim Marshall on Unsplash      Edited.

T
he phrase “I took the road less traveled by, and that has made all the difference,” is typically seen as an anthem of independence. These words have been borrowed for everything from high-school commencement speeches to product advertisements to episode titles of over a dozen television series. We’ve seen this verse printed on t-shirts, coffee mugs, and refrigerator magnets just to name a few.[1]

But the closing lines of Frost’s poem aren’t actually a paean of bold self-assertion and uniqueness. In fact, as is often the case with such aphorisms, it’s quite the opposite. One reason this happens is that, quite simply, language evolves. To further complicate matters, all too often the context of these popular wisdoms has been forgotten.

In the case of  “I took the road less traveled by, and that has made all the difference,” the aphorism comes from a poem that is typically misinterpreted.

As Frost himself warned audiences, “you have to be careful of that one; it’s a tricky poem – very tricky.”[2] Even the person who inspired the poem didn’t “get it” at first. What, then, is Frost actually talking about?

What Inspired The Road Not Taken?

As with prose literature, when engaging poetry the author and their life experience comes into play.  Inspiration for The Road Not Taken came from Frost’s mirth over a personality trait of his closest friend in England, Edward Thomas.

While Frost was living in Gloucester, he and Thomas would take long walks through the countryside together. Repeatedly, Thomas would choose a route on the promise of showing his American friend rare wild-flowers or birds’ eggs, only to have the walk end in laments and self-reproach when his chosen path failed to produce any such marvels. Ribbing Thomas after one of their best flower-gathering walks, Frost chided, “No matter which road you take, you’ll always sigh, and wish you’d taken another.”[3]

After Frost returned to the U.S., where he finished The Road Not Taken, he sent a copy to Thomas. Frost’s expectation was that his friend would understand the poem as a joke, and respond with something along the lines of “very funny”…  “stop teasing me.” But as noted above, that isn’t what happened.

Instead, Thomas praised the poem, his remarks indicating he missed the joke. Much to Frost’s chagrin, he would have to explain to Thomas that he’d been the butt of a joke. And, not surprisingly, Thomas didn’t find it the least bit funny. Frost’s joke had pricked Thomas’ already wavering confidence.

None too pleased, Thomas declared he doubted anyone would see the poem as a joke unless they had Frost to personally guide them through it. Frost came to realize just how tricky The Road Not Taken is when he read it for a group of college students – who didn’t get it either. Frost ultimately extended a “Mea culpa” to his good friend.[4]

It’s a Tricky Poem… Very Tricky

A careful reading begins with Frost’s title. His poem isn’t called The Road Less Traveled, though it’s often mistaken to be. Rather, it is titled The Road Not Taken. So, the poem is definitely not about the road the narrator chose to walk, less-traveled or otherwise.

When The Road Not Taken is read carefully, it becomes apparent that the poem functions on a fluctuating rhythm, one that reflects indecisiveness. More significantly, it is evident that the narrator isn’t simply telling us about these vacillating perspectives, he’s experiencing these emotions in real time.

But, here’s where Frost’s trickiness can trip up a reader. Given the way Frost structured The Road Not Taken, when read superficially it can act as a verbal thaumatrope – rotating two opposed visions in such a way that they, deceivingly, seem to merge.

Much like the Victorian-era toy in which two objects drawn on opposite sides of a card – a bird and a cage for instance – are, by quick spinning motion, made to appear as a single image of the bird in a cage.[5] In the case of The Road Not Taken, the illusion is that the poem is from a consistent viewpoint rather than fluctuating perspectives.

But if we engage Frost’s work deeply, and take it line-by-line, we can see the shifts in perspective that lead to the more nuanced understanding Frost indicated.

Line 1: Frost introduces his primary symbol, diverging roads in the woods.

Lines 2-3: The speaker expresses regret for the human limitation that restricts his travel to one road, forcing him to choose between them. It’s clear that making a choice isn’t easy for him, since “long I stood” before reaching a decision.

Lines 4-5: He examines one road as well as he can, but information is limited because the road takes a turn into an area covered by low-lying vegetation.

Lines 6-8: At first blush, these lines seem to suggest the speaker finds the second path a more attractive choice because it appears no one had traversed it recently.

Lines 9-12: Here’s a tricky bit. The speaker backpedals, pointing out that this road is no more or less worn that the first one, that they both “equally lay in leaves no step had trodden black.”

Lines 13-15: Another slippery passage – the speaker tells himself he’ll take a walk on the first road another day. Given the exclamation point at the end of this line, he’s clearly excited about having solved his dilemma.  But, “knowing how way leads to way,” he immediately reverses himself, doubting if “I should ever come back.”

Lines 16-20: The tone clearly shifts here. The speaker is no longer in the moment. Rather, he imagines himself in the future, near the end of his days, talking about the life he’s lived. In perhaps the most subtle nugget of all, the speaker will be telling his audience that “Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference.”

The “I—I” ever-so-deftly suggests a pause before the speaker recounts the story, as if he’s taking a beat to remember/decide how to characterize his choice.[7]

Psychologically Speaking

The Latin origin of the verb “to decide” means to cut off (de=off, caedere=cut). The act of deciding is supposed to cut off the deliberation process after a choice has been made. But psychologically, that isn’t the way it works. Instead, the deliberation process actually binds the options together in our memory, and the unchosen option lingers in our minds.

This psychological development leads to an inverse inference of value. In other words, after we realize the consequences of our decision, the perceived value of the unchosen option is inversely related to that outcome. And the stronger our memory is of deliberating between options, the greater the disparity between the value attributed to the chosen and unchosen options.

For example, if Frost’s speaker ended up having a lovely walk on the road he ultimately chose, he’ll remember the other road as having been inferior in some way even if it wasn’t.[8] This phenomenon is commonly referred to as confirmation bias.  And, it’s precisely what occurs in the closing lines of The Road Not Taken.

Remember, he told us both roads were equally fair and equally traveled. And don’t forget the speaker’s pause, as he mines his memory before recounting his story in the future. Plus, we end where we began our examination of The Road Not Taken, by noting that Frost’s title refers to the road his speaker didn’t choose.

So, rather than being an anthem of independence, Frost’s The Road Not Taken is an ode to the decision-making process, and how that activity effects memory. Albeit one that closes with an ironic jest, a witticism meaning – in the parlance of a modern quip – “and that has made all the difference”…  not.

#aphorisms unplugged           #the art of reading

Endnotes:

[1] Orr, David. “The Most Misread Poem in America.” September 11, 2015. The Paris Review.

[2] Thompson, Lawrance. Selected Letters of Robert Frost. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1952. Pg xv. https://ia801500.us.archive.org/15/items/in.ernet.dli.2015.111084/2015.111084.Selected-Letters-Of-Robert-Frost_text.pdf

[3] Thompson, Lawrance. Robert Frost: A biography. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1981. Pg 234.

Thompson, Lawrance. Selected Letters of Robert Frost. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1952. Pg xiv. https://ia801500.us.archive.org/15/items/in.ernet.dli.2015.111084/2015.111084.Selected-Letters-Of-Robert-Frost_text.pdf

Hollis, Matthew. “Edward Thomas, Robert Frost and the road to war.” July 26, 2011. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/books/2011/jul/29/robert-frost-edward-thomas-poetry

[4] Hollis, Matthew. “Edward Thomas, Robert Frost and the road to war.” July 26, 2011. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/books/2011/jul/29/robert-frost-edward-thomas-poetry

[5] Orr, David. “You’re Probably Misreading Robert Frost’s Most Famous Poem.” August 18, 2016. Literary Hub. https://lithub.com/youre-probably-misreading-robert-frosts-most-famous-poem/#:~:text=Because%20the%20poem%20isn’t,the%20road%20he%20never%20tried.

[6] Frost, Robert. “The Road Not Taken.” The Atlantic Magazine. August 1915, Pg. 223.

[7] “The Road Not Taken.” Encyclopedia.com https://www.encyclopedia.com/arts/educational-magazines/road-not-taken

[8] Natalie Biderman, and Daphna Shohamy. “Memory and decision making interact to shape the value of unchosen options.” Nature Communications. 12, 4648 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-24907-x

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Images:

The Road Not Taken. iStock.com/credit: Alex

What Inspired The Road Not Taken? Boulter, Liz. “Roads taken: the Gloucrstershire footpaths that were the making of Robert Frost.” The Guardian. June, 2021.  https://www.theguardian.com/travel/2021/jun/14/walking-gloucestershire-footpaths-making-of-robert-frost-and-revolutionary-poets

It’a a Tricky Poem… Very Tricky  https://teacherswebresources.com/2016/03/28/victorian-thaumatrope/  

Taking it Line by Line Photo by Johnny Briggs on Unsplash

Psychologically Speaking  Photo by Yeshi Kangrang on Unsplash

FYI:

This Book is Banned participates in the Amazon.com affiliate program, where we earn a small commission by linking to books (but the price remains the same to you).  This allows us to remain free, and ad free. [Our privacy policy]

W
hat the heck is an aphorism, anyway? The Oxford English Dictionary defines it as “a short pithy statement which contains a general truth.”[1] Without getting bogged down in a sea of definitions, the most obvious characteristic of an aphorism (aside from its brevity) is that it offers a universally valid comment on some aspect of life.

We’re all familiar with at least a couple of them.  “Blood is thicker than water,” “Charity begins at home,” and  “Go the extra mile” are just a few examples.

Like a lot of words in the English language, the origin of the word aphorism dates back to ancient Greece. In this case, to ἀφορισμός /aphorismos. The term aphorismos is derived from the verb ἀφορίζω / aphorizo, which means to divide, mark off, or distinguish. It’s a compound word that consists of the prefix ἀπό /apo (which means “from”), and the verb ὁρίζω / horizo (which means to define, to bound).[2]

Now that we’ve finished geeking out over the word’s origin, let’s take a look at the first  aphorisms that were used – the first to go by that name, anyway.

The earliest aphorisms came from Hippocrates (you know, the guy with the medical oath). At the time medicine was considered an integral part of philosophy, so Hippocrates was a philosopher as well as a physician. His aphorisms were a collection of short medical teachings and sayings.[3] And, here’s a few to ponder:

It’s easier to sustain the sick with liquid food than with a thick.

Most summer quartan fevers clear up fast, but those of fall and winter tend to last.

To a patient who is feeble, wan and spent, harsh treatments can bring only detriment.[4]

When the term aphorism was revived in the Renaissance, it continued to look to its scientific origins. However, it soon came to denote the formulation of a philosophical or moral principle as well. And, this gradually took over as its accepted everyday meaning.
.

By the eighteenth century, the shift was so complete that Hippocrates’ medical-based pearls of wisdom were dismissed, leaving us with the current definition of the term.[5]

Like our understanding of what constitutes philosophy, language itself also evolves. As a result, sometimes that well-worn adage doesn’t really mean what our computer-based, Google-driven world thinks it means. And to further complicate matters, all too often the context of many of today’s popular wisdoms has been forgotten.

Though these aphorisms may still contain some good advice, their original message is typically richer and more profound than our contemporary interpretations.

This Book is Banned proffers a few proverbs, sayings, and other pearls of wisdom that have been “unplugged,” as it were. We’ve rebooted, gone back-to-basics, and re-discovered their intended message. Browse our list of restored aphorisms below:

 #Aphorisms Unplugged       #The Art of Reading

Endnotes:

[1] “aphorism.”  The Oxford Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. Edited by Elizabeth Knowles. New York: Oxford University Press, 2000.

[2] Mpampiniotis, G. Etymological dictionary of the new Greek language: the history of the words. Lexicology Centre, Athens, 2009; 244

[3] Gross, John. The Oxford Book of Aphorisms. Oxford University Press. New York: Oxford University Press, 1983. Pg vii

[4] Scholtz M. Hippocrates’ Aphorisms. Cal West Med. 1940 May;52(5):231.

[5] Gross, John. The Oxford Book of Aphorisms. Oxford University Press. New York: Oxford University Press, 1983. Pg vii