from Aphorisms I-XV

I

The most devout long to breathe the dirt's scent once more.

The cat runs faster at night; he sees you better.

Only the ordinary is reprehensible, but praise disgusts the just.

Wine is not drunk enough.

Be bitter but only about the Truth.

With a friend, poison is sweet; sweetness, with an enemy, poisons.

The colder things are, the slower, unless they are flowers.

You will never know the river wets your hair.

What is sweetness, that bees do not remember honey?

Work is wings.

II

If you would judge, then be a Judge.

If you would be judged, be just.

The color of a stone is darker in water.

To be loved, love no one.

The catacombs are not the end. Past them lies a wall.

I am an enemy to what I have forgotten.

If a bell rings, then a bell has been moved from its sleep.

Change admits error, but will prove correct in its assumptions.

Every antipole is itself. Every identity is another.

As I walked along the river, an old man carried a walking stick on his shoulder, as a soldier will carry a rifle. When we passed I greeted him, but he could not bring himself to answer, though I too am an old man, taking pains as I go.