New Animal Aphorisms to Live By

What better way to view the world than with animals in mind?

Illustration source: Kamisaka Sekka (1909) via New York Public Library/RawPixel; design: Summer Anne Burton; aphorism: Laura Vincent

The aphorism is a perceptive truism, a saying which allows us to recognize some aspect of life in a simple but meaningful way. Their success can be their downfall — many is the aphorism which started off witty and is now considered a cliche through overuse. Cliche or not, the truth at the core of many of them remains.

When I’m not writing about food, my words are used in composing poetry and writing a novel, and in order to metaphorically dunk my tired brain in ice-cold water, I wrote some aphorisms of my own as a creative exercise. The list ended up being almost entirely about animals.

Whether or not these following aphorisms are hard-hitting, poetically philosophical truths or just plain goofy is up to you — but what better way to view the world than with animals in mind?

Hold a mirror to the dog to know how a person should be.

With legs uncertain and no experience, the newborn giraffe nevertheless tries!

Cuteness is not morally weighted. But even the wasp, in slumber, becomes adorable.