The Fifty-Two Truths of 2022

These personal aphorisms were collected one per week throughout 2022, and first published on my Instagram story at the end of that year.

“The less you eat, drink, and read books; the less you go to the theatre, the dance hall, the public house; the less you think, love, theorize, sing, paint, fence, etc., the more you save. The greater becomes your treasure which neither moths nor rust will devour: your capital. The less you are, the more you have; the less you express your own life, the greater is your alienated life; the greater is the store of your estranged being.”

Karl Marx
Paris, 1844

  1. Knowledge often impedes understanding.
  2. Wilful ignorance impedes it more.
  3. Understanding is often a matter of velocity. Too fast and Shakespeare makes no sense. Too slow and he makes even less.
  4. Many things aren't your fault but are sure as hell your problem
  5. The greatest comforts are to be found nestled in the depths of ambiguity.
  6. It is fruitless to organise something you should instead be discarding.
  7. An explanation of your behaviour—on its own—does not constitute an apology.
  8. Neither does a mere proposotion preceded by the word sorry.
  9. The incredible hulk is the platonic ideal of a lover.
  10. When unsure, it's best to keep moving. And get out of the way.
  11. No matter how absurd; satire still needs to be funny.
  12. You deserve the nicest screwdrivers you can afford.
  13. Whilst time constraint is a fact of adult life busyness results from a management error. If you find that your busyness has become permanent then you must learn to manage earlier, differently, and much, much better.
  14. A management error on your part should not constitute an emergency for others.
  15. “I got too busy to keep up” is an excellent reason to drop a T.V. Series. And an awful excuse to ruin a friendship.
  16. It is so often far easier to not be terrible.
  17. You are using too much detergent. Use less in hotter water.
  18. Some people care more about the attention you can give them than they'll ever care about you. The fault lies in them.
  19. These same people are experts at pretending to listen when they're just waiting to speak.
  20. The person who cares most about a relationship has the least power over it.
  21. Most unsolicited advice you want to give is for yourself, and not the person you're speaking to.
  22. Media can disgust, discomfit, challenge, and confront. It cannot harm.
  23. You should put a rubbish bin anywhere you repeatedly want to leave rubbish.
  24. It's best not to tell someone their negative feelings are wrong. Rarely is a sad person helped by being called a liar as well.
  25. It is rationally permissible to hold some illogical beliefs.
  26. Anger only helps when there's something specific to be angry at.
  27. It is okay to stop reading a book you're not enjoying.
  28. You should always prioritise maintaining a prior commitment over accepting a new one.
  29. You don't speak through a translator. But you do listen through one.
  30. It is okay, albeit difficult, to grieve over the loss of someone who's still alive.
  31. Middling art is just as, and often more, enriching than bad and good art.
  32. Information isn't useless if it amuses you.
  33. Love is not performative. But it must be expressed.
  34. There are numerous things in life worse and more damaging than hypocrisy; most notably the belief that eventually changing to become a little less of a jerk must be excoriated for is rank ‘hypocrisy’.
  35. People give recommendations for a reason. It's best to pay attention.
  36. Anything you can think of yields a lifetime of things to learn about.
  37. The more meaningless an argument the more substantial the differences it unveils.
  38. Loving music is not necessarily comorbid with loving performances.
  39. Many great performers don't love music. Every great musician does.
  40. You need to replace your kitchen sponge.
  41. Character is doing the right thing when no one is watching.
  42. Integrity is putting in effort when it's not going to matter.
  43. All articles titled “The True Meaning of…” are about something that doesn't even have a true meaning.
  44. All universal truths arrive with a qualification.
  45. Proust finished publishing Á la Recherche du Temps Perdu five years after he died. You needn't finish it any quicker.
  46. An aphorism is only useful in so far as it elicits discussion about why it's wrong.
  47. Team Edward vs. Team Jacob is just a waifu war.
  48. Billiards is about far more than angles.
  49. No matter how sound and complete, any ethical framework that justifies being an asshole isn't a very good one.
  50. You don't need to logically justify your feelings.
  51. Feelings are real.
  52. You don't get to choose what makes you emotional, but you do have a striking amount of agency over what makes you irrational. Try to exercise it.

Aragorn Keuken
December 31st, 2022 AK Monograph

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