Maxims or "aphorisms" –short philosophical sayings– appear everywhere, from Confucius to Twitter, from Buddha to the Bible, from Heraclitus to Nietzsche. However, despite this widespread presence, the maxim is the literary genre that has been studied the least.
What are its origins? How has it evolved? How do certain religious or philosophical movements begin with the enigmatic words of charismatic leaders? And why do some of the most well-known contemporary philosophers use aphoristic sayings to express their deepest thoughts?
In the book, Andrew Hui intertwines stories and cultures to answer these and other questions. With clarity and precision, Hui shows how maxims –from China, Greece, and biblical antiquity to the European Renaissance and the 19th century– encompass sweeping and urgent programs of thought.
Structured as literary excerpts, maxims open new horizons of research and interpretation and thus have served as ancestors, allies, or competitors to great philosophical systems. Encompassing literature, philology, and philosophy, the history of the book and the history of reading, the book All Wisdom in One Sentence invites us to reconsider the significance of studying this encompassing literary genre.
