Following my previous posts on two favorite American aphorists, Mae West and Yogi Berra, I now move to Poland for additional thought provoking aphorisms. Stanislaw J. Lec (1909–1966), a Polish aphorist, poet, and an avowed communist, became notorious for his pithy observations, despite his unpopular political views. I quote a few below:
Human activity:
— “He who limps is still walking.”
— “Don’t trust the heart, it wants your blood.”
— “Youth is the gift of nature, but age is a work of art.”
— “The moment of recognizing your own lack of talent is a flash of genius.”
— “When you jump for joy, beware that no one moves the ground under your feet.”
Uncertainty:
— “Beyond each corner, new directions lie in wait.”
— “On the top of each peak your are on the edge of an abyss.”
— “Do not ask God the way to heaven; he will show you the hardest one.”
— “The first requisite for immortality is death.”
Political action:
— “In a war of ideas, it is the people who get killed.”
— “Is it progress if a cannibal uses a fork?”
— “No snowflake in an avalanche ever feels responsible.”
— “You can close your eyes to reality, but not to memories.”
Respecting the last quote, Lec experienced the reality of two World Wars, the Great Depression, and imprisonment within a German work camp, which suggests that few of his memories reached a happy plateau. Mostly, he worked as a writer for communist periodicals and participated in the communist movement, leading to his departure from Poland to escape government arrest before WW II. After German occupation, he returned to Poland to write many pro-Soviet pieces, including praise for Stalin, resulting in his imprisonment. After his second failed escape attempt, he was sentenced to death, but succeeded in his third attempt, reportedly killing his assigned executioner with the shovel he used while digging his own grave. (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanislaw_Jerzy_Lec)
Despite his tragic life story, he wrote many thoughtful aphorisms, including those above. He died young, before the Berlin Wall tumbled down.