Geary's Guide to the World's Great Aphorists

Since I have a concentration deficit at times, aphorisms are great morsels of easily digestible pieces of wisdom and insight.

I recommend the broad and eclectic collection of aphorisms collected by James Geary. Geary also includes a short bio on the authors of the aphorisms and generally a dozen or more of their best efforts.

The list below caught my eye and mind:

1. The best way to convince a fool that he is wrong is to let him have their own way.

2. Headstone: death's bookmark.

3. A boss: the less he speaks, the more he is heard.

4, What makes old age so sad is not that our joys but our hopes cease.

5. The less we know, the longer our explanations.

6. To read fast is as bad as to eat in a hurry.

7. A precondition for reading good books is not reading bad ones: for life is short.

Two Books Rush or Hannity Aren't Reading

I recently skimmed through Third World America by Arianna Huffington and Deadly Spin: An Insurance Company Insider Speaks Out on How Corporate PR is Killing Health Care and Deceiving Americans by Wendell Potter.

Both books come from a decidedly liberal bias so neither one of the authors will be on the Tea Party's Best Seller List.

If you have to read one, I'd choose Potter's book. Potter went through a St Paul conversion moment as the head of PR at Cigna, one of this nation's major health insurers. A young woman denied coverage for a life saving operation dies. Potter reexamines his values and comes clean on the efforts of health insurance companies to stymie reform.

If you are worried about health insurance, this book won't allay your fears...