Aphorisms

An aphoristic tone hangs about this book (we,  one, always). Now the maxim is complicitous with an essentialist notion of human nature; it is linked to classical ideology: it is the most arrogant (often the stupidest) of the forms of language. Why then not reject it? The reason is, as always, emotive: I write maxims (or I sketch their movement) in order to reassure myself: when some disturbance arises, I attenuate it by confiding myself to a fixity which exceeds my powers: 'Actually, it's always like that': and the maxim is born. The maxim is a sort of sentence-name, and to name is to pacify. Moreover, this too is a maxim: it attenuates my fear of seeking extravagance by writing maxims.

Roland Barthes

A fascinating passage worth thinking about in relation to Cioran, a writer who wrote almost exclusively in maxims. It was Cioran's desire, I believe, to escape contingency, and Barthes here reveals that his form of writing was as important for that goal as the content.