Colombian aphorisms.

If internet self-publishing has degraded the essay by giving undisciplined writers, of whom I am the chief, an editor-free channel to the world, then it's good that they can't tarnish good aphorisms. There's not really any such thing as a bad aphorism; a failed aphorism is just a statement, which we judge to be true or false and go on our way.

The RSS feed system works pretty well for wisdom literature, at least judging by how I've enjoyed Don Colacho's Aphorisms, a site that posts English translations of Nicolás Gómez Dávila's work at four-hour intervals. Just from this weekend:

• #2,445: "Loyalty to a doctrine ends in adherence to the interpretation we give it.
  Only loyalty to a person frees us from all self-complacency."
• #2,435: "To scandalize anyone today, it suffices to suggest to him that he renounce something."
• #2,347: "History shows that man’s good ideas are accidental and his mistakes methodical."

Of course, it takes an extraordinary mind to generate a large set of such statements. Or, as Jaron Lanier appropriately expressed it, "you have to be someone before you can share yourself."