A Curmudgeon's Guide to Postmodern Times: Aphorisms

By Richard Greene

Now revised and updated with new aphorisms!

Reader beware: This book contains material that disparages cherished beliefs, opinions and institutions including political and religious ones. While some readers may find that material refreshingly irreverent, others may find it offensive. The aphorism quoted on the cover, Patriotism, piety and chastity are all much overrated virtues, offers a relatively mild example. Some of the aphorisms offer potentially even more offensive material, so proceed with caution.

Here are a few examples of Mr. Greene’s aphorisms:

Sex wouldn't be nearly so interesting if it weren’t so widely forbidden.

The truly strong are those who aren’t driven by the need to prove their strength.

Lawyers, actors and politicians must fool others. In the process they often fool themselves.

We tend to forget that not all mothers are saints, nor all soldiers heroes.

The most important measure of civilization is compassion, not technology, culture, sophisticated institutions, power or the gross national product.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Jumble Books and Publishers
• Release date: Jun 13, 2022
• ISBN: 9780645430042

Richard Greene

RICHARD GREENE is Professor of Philosophy and Director of the Richards Richards Institute for Ethics at Weber State University. He is the past Director of the Intercollegiate Ethics Bowl. He is the author of Spoiler Alert: It’s a Book About the Philosophy of Spoilers, and has produced twenty or so edited books on pop culture and philosophy. He also co-hosts the popular podcast I Think, Therefore I Fan.

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© Richard Greene

Published 2021

Revised 2022

ISBN: 978-0-6454300-4-2 (epub)

ISBN: 978-0-6454300-3-5 (paperback)

ISBN: 978-0-6454300-5-9 (PDF)

Published with the aid of Jumble Books and Publishers (jumblebooksandpublishers.com).

Richard Greene is a poet, or has been at least since he retired from a 38-year career in international development. A lawyer by training, he fell into his development career by accident when, after law school, though planning not to practice law but interested in international affairs, he accepted an unsolicited job offer from the U.S. Agency for International Development. After a few years in Washington (or Foggy Bottom, as the location of the U.S. foreign policy establishment is known), he was assigned as legal advisor to the USAID mission in Laos and there discovered that the development business suited his interests and inclinations very well.

Greene wrote poetry beginning in the 8th grade and continued through college where he studied with a Professor, Henry Rago, who later became editor of Poetry magazine, the leading U.S. poetry journal.  However, he wrote few poems after law school as he became absorbed in international development, but turned back to poetry as he neared retirement.

One day he noticed that a couple of the lines in one of his poems stood well on their own. He thinks the lines may have been ‘The cannon is callous / in its choice of targets’. After he came up with that first aphorism, he began looking for other extractable scraps of wisdom in his poems and soon thereafter began writing such scraps independently.

This image is in the public domain.

Image Credit: Le nouvel Atlas (The New Atlas) by Honoré Daumier.

A Curmudgeon’s Guide to Postmodern Times

Aphorisms

by

Richard Greene

aphorism (noun)

(From: Merriam-Webster.com)

Contents

Human Nature

Philosophy

Profundity

Politics

Economics

Justice

Religion

Folly

Fashion

Materialism

The Arts

Poetry

Advice

Etcetera

Human Nature

Only unfulfilled love is perfect. All other kinds require tolerance for human defects.

Sex wouldn't be nearly so interesting if it weren’t so widely forbidden.

What’s sauce for the goose isn’t necessarily sauce for the gander.

Some use their intellect to seek truth, others to justify their preconceptions.

The truly strong are those who aren’t driven by the need to prove their strength.

Lawyers, actors and politicians must fool others. In the process they often fool themselves.

We tend to forget that not all mothers are saints, nor all soldiers heroes.

All mothers are virgins in their children’s eyes.

Bird watching and yoga have become competitive sports. What does that tell you about our society?

We live in a society in which actors are seen as more important than those they portray.

Nobody climbs Everest because it’s

Reviews for A Curmudgeon's Guide to Postmodern Times

[keilahcoverstone · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I received a free copy of this book from LibraryThing in exchange for an honest review. I have mixed feelings on this book. On the one side, I highlighted tons of sayings and gasped countless times at the incredible wisdom I found between the pages of this book. On the other side, I found this to have a negative, egotistical tone - almost as if the only opinions that matter (or exhibit truth) are those of the author. I understand that's to be expected when picking up a book like this. But at the end of the day, I simply wasn't expecting such an onslaught of putting people and concepts down. This is a good read for anyone wanting to evaluate the concepts of life, but not for those who have are sensitive or optimistic.

[kristincedar · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

So if you’ve ever heard the song "Everybody's Free (To Wear Sunscreen)" by Baz Luhrmann, you’ve read this book. there’s nothing wrong with inspiration books like this, but I was hoping there would be MORE to the inspirational quotes, like context, or meaning or history or anything. That, and it feels a little negative — I mean everything is terrible, but I don’t need to be reminded of that in a book of “inspiration”, but then again, that’s the title. You get exactly what it says. Nothing more, nothing less.

[wenestvedt_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This book, of one-liners from the author's own works, reminds me of the spirit of "The Notebooks of Lazarus Long," by Robert Heinlein (aside from having no illustrations).The aphorisms are arranged simply on the page, and the eye moves easily from line to line.Many of them are jaded (e.g., "The human race is a Greek tragedy waiting to happen"), but some are genuinely insightful or funny ("A thing of beauty is a joy until you get used to it" or "Dessert can never be too soon").I enjoyed scanning through these, though they might have benefitted from being interrupted by decoration from time to time.