We are what We Think

Book excerpt: ‘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.’