Can one discover his or her new experiences? No, because one only has experiences; strictly speaking, one cannot discover what one already has experienced. This little nicety of logic is also why the aphorisms are not very good philosophy. Witty aphorisms may serve the purpose of calling attention to a worthy concept but do little more. To mention discovery in connection with experience begs a close definition of each term in a specific context. That's where philosophy and linguistics rightly come into play. Furthermore, it's always annoying when authors make summative trivializing remarks about others, as if those other folks too shallow and stupid to reflect on their own experiences. Only notable people can get by with aphorisms because the aphorisms rely on their reputations alone; other validations are excused.
Probably the best quoter of aphorisms and little lessons from the ancients was Montaigne. Yet even he only used quotations to supplement --ornament -- his own close arguments and never as stand-alone appeals. A hundred years ago it was a kind of parlor game to converse in quotations from the ancients or notable contemporaries. I call that the Bartlett approach to discourse. Nowadays Bartlett's pretty much out of favor because few people read the ancients or know much of anything of what used to be called 'letters'. The old fashioned Bartlett's' Quotation approach to discourse is surely one tradition we can do without. Yes, you may quote me on that because I'm listed in the various Who's Who (America, Art, World, blah, blah) and thus qualify as an aphorist. wc When you speak of discovery, do you mean the discovery of new experiences?: - No one is so eager to gain new experience as he who doesn't know how to make use of the old ones. Marie EbnervonEschenbach
