The remarks that make up 'Wisdom Literature'

 I’m interested in “Wisdom Literature.”

The name is unfortunate. The subject is less pretentious than it sounds.

If you are looking for an example and have a family Bible, Proverbs and Ecclesiastes will give you a sense of the subject. If you have a Catholic Bible, Ecclesiasticus is even better.

The reading gets better outside the Bible. It’s hard to beat Diogenes.

These notes recently have been about aphorisms or remarks. A lot of Wisdom Literature is made up of individual remarks that are only loosely related to each other. The biblical book of Proverbs is a good example. Outlining the book probably wouldn’t reveal much underlying structure.

I’m spectacularly unqualified to sort the literature for you.

But it’s largely a mixture of adages, apothegms, axioms, bromides, dictums, epigrams, maxims, mottos, proverbs and platitudes. 

That list of different forms comes from James Geary, who groups most of them together as aphorisms. 

I like the word remark.

• Sources: James Geary has a couple of fine books on aphorisms, The World in a Phrase: A Brief History of the Aphorism; New York: Bloomsbury, 2005, and Geary’s Guide to the World’s Great Aphorisms; London: Bloomsbury USA, 2007.