I recently bought a copy of Rochefoucald's Maxims in translation. Lucid and witty, though often cynical, many of them bear repeating. At random I give you
- We give away nothing so liberally as advice (110)
- It is more easy to be wise for others than for ourselves (132)
- What we find least often in a love affair is love itself( 402)
From an earlier age, Marcus Aurelius's Stoic Meditations also contain good things.
- If it is not the right thing to do, never do it; if it is not the truth, do not say it.
- Keep your impulses in hand.
- (Or, leaving out his conclusion) death, Alexander of Macedon's end differed no whit from his stable boy's ....
In a more directly Christian line, Spurgeon's Salt Cellars take homely sayings, such as Soft words win hard hearts or Take no more on your back than you can carry and adds spiritual comment. Spurgeon himself can be eminently quotable. He who is not godly every day is not godly any day or Men may fast from bread that they may gorge themselves on pride.
Then there are the Puritans such as Thomas Watson; Grace is Christ's portrait drawn on the soul or It is good to find out our sins, lest they find us out.
The perfect repository of such wisdom is the Book of Proverbs which is full of divine wisdom in proverbial form drawn from many ancient sources. What can match proverbs such as
• The blessing of the LORD brings wealth, and he adds no trouble to it.
• One man pretends to be rich, yet has nothing; another pretends to be poor, yet has great wealth.
• There is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death. (10:22, 13:7, 14:12)?
J W Alexander of Princeton was one who wrote down maxims. In his Thoughts on Preaching he encourages the framing of them. He defmes a maxim as a general principle of conduct expressed in a concise, portable, applicable manner. A maxim is a nascent proverb. He encourages the framing of a new maxim every day. By way of example he tells of how as a young man he noticed how some things seemed too much trouble. He framed the maxim
Never avoid doing anything because of the short bodily trouble it may occasion.
'It has saved me a world of useless regrets', he declares. He did not want to turn us all into proverb makers. As he says, coming up with one that will last is usually a once in a life time experience at best. Rather, he urges learning from experience and making best use of what we may learn by framing our own maxims. When 1 first read his advice I decided to have a go. I left off after a short while but every now and again I return to the habit. Here are some personal maxims that have helped me. May be they will help you. More importantly, maybe, they will stir you to come up with some of your own.
- Children: You can always spare two minutes for a child.
- Never shout at a child - they won't understand.
- Early rising: Get up early every day, that's the godly way.
- Guidance: Guidance is easy if you don't care where you're going.
- Organisation: An hour's relaxation and an hour's work is better than three hours of trying to do both.
- A day without a plan, is something they should ban.
- Rise and retire the same time every day, for creatures of habit it's easier that way.
- Prayer: If you know how long you stayed, you probably haven't prayed.
- The easiest thing to squeeze out of a busy life is prayer.
- Prayer letters: Read them and pray there and then, you might not get the chance again.
- Television: Hours hard at work are hours well spent, hours with the TV you'll have to repent.
- Switch on the telly - inevitab-l-y
- General: Trying to regain lost ground by back-pedalling is an impossible task.
- In the time it takes to let a thing go roimd your head a dozen times, you could have done it.
- The pursuit of pleasure leads nowhere.
- Summer's as long as Winter.
- January started well, February's when I fell.
- What you find easy, others find hard. What you find hard, may come easy to them.
- Self-consciousness destroys, God-consciousness transforms.
- If the television has killed the art of conversation so the telephone has killed the art of letter writing.
- Pious hopes do no good to anyone.
- Always take note of criticism, there's often some truth in it.
- Our calling is to encourage not to humble. God will do the humbling.
- A maxim a day can maximise your way.
- Dreaming up wise maxims won't make you wise!
