On Lit with Charles, we usually dive into novels, short stories, and poetry - but in this episode, we’re doing something a little radical. From the longest literary forms to one of the shortest: the aphorism.

An aphorism is a short, striking statement - often just a line or two - that captures a deep universal truth. It’s a form beloved by some of history’s greatest minds: Oscar Wilde, Mark Twain, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and Friedrich Nietzsche, to name a few.

Today’s guest, James Geary, is an American writer and lifelong devotee of this deceptively simple art. From his early fascination with language to his career as an editor at Time magazine and later as a lecturer at Harvard, James has explored the timeless power of the aphorism - those brief sentences that linger far longer than they last. His works include The World in a Phrase: A Brief History of the Aphorism and Wit’s End: What Wit Is, How It Works, and Why We Need It.

We talk about what makes an aphorism work, why brevity can sometimes reveal more than verbosity, and how these tiny truths continue to shape how we think and write.

I loved this conversation - it’s a thoughtful, witty, and illuminating dive into the distilled essence of language. I hope you enjoy it too.

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James Geary’s four books were:

• Reader's Digest

• Walden, Henry David Thoreau (1854)

• I Ching (c. 1000 – 750 BCE)

• Ulysses, James Joyce (1920)