Geary's Guide to the World's Great Aphorists

Geary's Guide to the World's Great Aphorists PDF Author: James Geary
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN: 1596917881
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 452

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Book Description
Both an expert and a collector, James Geary has devoted his life to aphorisms-and the last few years to organizing, indexing, and even translating them. The result is Geary's Guide, featuring aphorists like Voltaire, Twain, Shakespeare, Nietzsche, Woody Allen, Muhammad Ali, Emily Dickinson, and Mae West, as well as international practitioners appearing in English for the first time. But it is more than just a conventional anthology. It is also an encyclopedia, containing brief biographies of each author in addition to a selection of his or her aphorisms. The book is a field guide, too, with aphorists organized into eight different "species," such as Comics, Critics & Satirists; Icons & Iconoclasts; and Painters & Poets. The book's two indexes-by author and by subject-make it easily searchable, while its unique organizational structure and Geary's lively biographical entries set it apart from all previous reference works. A perfect follow-up to Geary's New York Times bestseller The World in a Phrase, Geary's Guide is eminently suitable for browsing or for sustained reading. A comprehensive guide to our most intimate, idiosyncratic literary form, the book is an indispensable tool for writers and public speakers as well as essential reading for all language lovers.

Geary's Guide to the World's Great Aphorists

Geary's Guide to the World's Great Aphorists PDF Author: James Geary
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN: 1596917881
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 452

Get Book Here

Book Description
Both an expert and a collector, James Geary has devoted his life to aphorisms-and the last few years to organizing, indexing, and even translating them. The result is Geary's Guide, featuring aphorists like Voltaire, Twain, Shakespeare, Nietzsche, Woody Allen, Muhammad Ali, Emily Dickinson, and Mae West, as well as international practitioners appearing in English for the first time. But it is more than just a conventional anthology. It is also an encyclopedia, containing brief biographies of each author in addition to a selection of his or her aphorisms. The book is a field guide, too, with aphorists organized into eight different "species," such as Comics, Critics & Satirists; Icons & Iconoclasts; and Painters & Poets. The book's two indexes-by author and by subject-make it easily searchable, while its unique organizational structure and Geary's lively biographical entries set it apart from all previous reference works. A perfect follow-up to Geary's New York Times bestseller The World in a Phrase, Geary's Guide is eminently suitable for browsing or for sustained reading. A comprehensive guide to our most intimate, idiosyncratic literary form, the book is an indispensable tool for writers and public speakers as well as essential reading for all language lovers.

The World in a Phrase

The World in a Phrase PDF Author: James Geary
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN: 160819762X
Category : Reference
Languages : en
Pages : 242

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Book Description
Starting with the ancient Chinese and ending with contemporary Europeans and Americans, The World in a Phrase tells the story of the aphorism through spirited and amusing biographies of some of its greatest practitioners, including Emily Dickinson, and Mark Twain and Dorothy Parker; great French aphorists like Montaigne, La Rochefoucauld, and Chamfort; philosophers like Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, and Wittgenstein; as well as prophets and sages like the Buddha, Lao Tzu, and Jesus. In our modern age, The World in a Phrase explores how aphorisms still retain the power to instigate and inspire, enlighten and enrage, entertain and edify. James Geary is the author of The Body Electric: An Anatomy of the New Bionic Senses. He lives in London with his wife and three children. "James Geary's celebration of the smallest-and sometimes wisest-of literary forms. Geary defines the characteristics of aphorisms and discusses their history and their role in his life, and shares the work of renowned aphorists from Buddha to Dr. Seuss."-Associated Press

Wit's End: What Wit Is, How It Works, and Why We Need It

Wit's End: What Wit Is, How It Works, and Why We Need It PDF Author: James Geary
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
ISBN: 039325495X
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 202

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Book Description
Entertaining, illuminating, and entirely unique, Wit’s End “convey[s] the power of wit to refresh the mind” (Henry Hitchings, Wall Street Journal). In “this inventive and playful book” (Tom Beer, Newsday), James Geary explores every facet of wittiness, from its role in innovation to why puns are the highest form of wit. Adopting a different style for each chapter—from dramatic dialogue to sermon, heroic couplets to a barroom monologue—Geary embodies wit in all its forms. Wit’s End agilely balances psychology, folktale, visual art, and literary history with lighthearted humor and acute insight, demonstrating that wit and wisdom are really the same thing.

I Is an Other

I Is an Other PDF Author: James Geary
Publisher: Harper Collins
ISBN: 0062041770
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 308

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Book Description
The New York Times bestselling author examines how metaphors influence every aspect of our lives, from art to medicine, psychology to the stock market. Metaphor is much more than a mere literary device. Often hiding in plain sight, it is a critical aspect of how humans think and communicate. Metaphor is at work in all fields of human endeavor, including economics, business, science, and psychology. In I Is an Other, James Geary takes readers from Aristotle's investigation of metaphor right up to the latest neuroscientific insights into how metaphor works in the brain. Along the way, he demonstrates how metaphor affects financial decision making, creates effective advertising, and helps us achieve emotional insight and psychological change. Geary also explores how a life without metaphor, as experienced by some people with autism spectrum disorders, significantly changes the way a person interacts with the world.

We are what We Think

We are what We Think PDF Author: James Geary
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780719561344
Category : Aphorisms and apothegms
Languages : en
Pages : 248

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Book Description
‘We Are What We Think’ are the words with which the Buddha begins the Dhammapada, one of the world’s earliest collections of sayings. In this single, short, sharp lesson he reveals that our lives are what we make them and it is up to us to master our own minds. What sets these wise words apart from the cliches and soundbites we encounter every day? When a saying has the power to reach out and change your life it is no longer a platitude or proverb but an aphorism. Self-confessed aphorism addict James Geary takes a whimsical, humorous tour through the history of this remarkable art form and its extraordinary practitioners. He routes his journey through the varied, often idiosyncratic backgrounds of the world’s key thinkers and shows, as eighteenth-century aphorist Vauvenargues puts it, just how much ‘the maxims of men reveal their hearts’. With a scope that reaches from the ancient Eastern prophets to the rise of the American one-liner, the book’s focus is life, the universe and everything. Inspirational and challenging, We Are What We Think and the aphorisms in it sparkle, as Thomas Jefferson quipped, ‘like diamonds in a dunghill.’

I Is an Other

I Is an Other PDF Author: James Geary
Publisher: Harper Perennial
ISBN: 9780061710292
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 320

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Book Description
From President Obama’s political rhetoric to the bursting of the housing bubble, from conversations to commercials, James Geary shows that every aspect of our day-to-day experience is molded by metaphor. Geary takes readers from Aristotle’s investigation of metaphor right up to the latest neuroscientific insights into how metaphor works in the brain. Witty, persuasive, and original, I Is an Other explores metaphor’s effects on financial decision making, effective advertising, leadership, learning, and more. Romeo’s exclamation “It is the East, and Juliet is the sun!” may be one of the most well-known metaphors in literature, but metaphor is more than a device of love-struck poets. As Geary demonstrates, metaphor has leaped off the page and landed with a mighty splash right in the middle of the stream of consciousness.

The Peace Officer's Companion

The Peace Officer's Companion PDF Author: J. Leith Harrell
Publisher: AuthorHouse
ISBN: 1456724940
Category : Self-Help
Languages : en
Pages : 186

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Book Description
Police work isnt for everyone. Those who choose to answer the call seldom realize what they are getting themselves into. Theyre drawn to the excitement, the pursuit of justice, and the thrill of the chase. Once in uniform, they are confronted by the worst humanity has to offer, departments that seem designed to frustrate rather than support their officers, and friends and family incapable of understanding what theyre going through. Being a cop is an incredibly rewarding way of life, but only if you can keep your head straight. This book aims to help you do just that. Inside youll find 365 inspirational passages from historys greats. Each passage is accompanied by modern analysis from a street cops perspective. Its nothing fancy, just frank observations honed over almost two decades of working the road. Whether you are considering a career in police work, or if you are already on the job, this book is for you. Read one passage per day as part of your beginning of shift ritual or devour it whole in one sitting. Either way, youll enjoy the advice of some of the greatest minds and most accomplished people in history as you find you own answers to the jobs most pressing challenges.

The Oxford Book of Aphorisms

The Oxford Book of Aphorisms PDF Author: John Gross
Publisher: Oxford University Press on Demand
ISBN: 9780192804563
Category : Reference
Languages : en
Pages : 383

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Book Description
Gathers witty quotations about nature, religion, fear, hope, fame, wealth, politics, marriage, happiness, knowledge, language, and death

Where Epics Fail

Where Epics Fail PDF Author: Yahia Lababidi
Publisher: Unbound Publishing
ISBN: 1783525835
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 250

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Book Description
It is not words, song, or art that are tremendous, but the human soul, and what is set in motion when it is stirred to the depths. Where Epics Fail is a collection of over 800 aphorisms from acclaimed writer, essayist and poet Yahia Lababidi. Offering wit and wisdom, inspiration and spirituality, these meditations appeal to our shared humanity and attempt, with art, to guide us through the landscape of everyday life.

Except When I Write

Except When I Write PDF Author: Arthur Krystal
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199890250
Category : Literary Collections
Languages : en
Pages : 202

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Book Description
From Montaigne in the sixteenth century to Orwell, Eliot, and Trilling in the twentieth, the best literary essayists combine a gift for observation with an abiding commitment to books. Although it may seem that books are becoming less essential and that a revolution in sensibility is taking place, the essays of Arthur Krystal suggest otherwise. Companionable without being chummy, engaged without being didactic, erudite without being stuffy, he demonstrates that literature, even in the digital age, remains the truest expression of the human condition. Covering subjects as diverse as aphorisms, dueling, the night, and the 1960s, the essays gathered here offer the common reader uncommon pleasure. In prose that is both vibrant and elegant, Krystal negotiates among myriad subjects-from historical writing as exemplified by Jacques Barzun to the art of screenwriting as not so happily represented by F. Scott Fitzgerald. His cardinal rule as a writer? William Hazlitt's "Confound it, man, don't be insipid." No fear of that. Except When I Write is thoughtful in the most joyful sense--brimming with ideas in order to give us the flow and cadence of someone actually thinking. Keenly observant and death on pretension, Krystal examines the world of books without ever losing sight of the world beyond them. Literature may be the bedrock on which these essays rest, but as F. R. Leavis aptly noted, "One cannot seriously be interested in literature and remain purely literary in interests." Except When I Write is a reminder of both the pleasure and the power of a well-tuned essay.