I’ve been questioning for some time Tim Challies daily posting of pious aphorisms, which seem to undermine Bible memorization (for starters). Then I read Alan Jacobs on Platitude-Pushers and I think of the sentimental maxims that Tim posts (complete with — wait for it — graphics).
First Jacobs:
Platitude-pushers seem to do especially well on Twitter: if you want to get yourself tens of thousands of followers, just utter banal words of exhortation, challenge, or encouragement with an air of profundity (and, of course, in fewer than 140 characters).
Then Tim’s pious thought for the day:
Everybody thinks sanctification looks like strength. Really what it looks like is weakness. —Ed Welch
Finally, the aphorisms of a real craftsman, H. L. Mencken. Not so pious, but oh so provocative.
Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want and deserve to get it good and hard.
Love: The delusion that one woman differs from another.
Misogynist: A man who hates women as much as women hate one another.
Old Life 