Ashleigh Brilliant Is. . .Brilliant

I became aware of Ashleigh Brilliant in about 1971, when several quotes from him appeared in Art Spiegelman's wonderful Whole Grains--a counterculture quotation book. Thirty-five years later, Ashleigh is keeping on.

"Wonderfully inspirational and insane messages" says Professor J. Katz, Dept. of Psychology, John Abbott College, Canada.

An interview and article by James Moore says that Brilliant has created around 10,000 of these aphorisms/potshots/circuituous riddles . . Brilliant's Pot Shots is syndicated to more than thirty newspapers. He has written many books and published hundreds (thousands?) of his illustrated ready-made quotations, as well as illustrated many other folks' books.

Over the years, Brilliant developed a definition of "Pot-Shots:" they cannot rhyme, and must fall within his self-imposed limit of seventeen words (the same as a haiku). Brilliant told Independent Press-Telegram critic Candy Cooper that he avoids local cultural references because "Pot-Shots have always been a deliberate attempt to reach out to the world."

The Wikipedia has a good collection of Brilliantisms.

Not only don't I know what tomorrow will bring, I'm still not entirely certain what yesterday brought.
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I either want less corruption, or more chance to participate in it.
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I hope I can settle my internal conflicts without bloodshed.
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Why does life keep teaching me lessons I have no desire to learn?
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I try to take life as it comes, and just hope it keeps coming.
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The best thing about being too late is that there's no more need to hurry.
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The most exciting place to discover talent is in yourself.

The more sure you are, the more wrong you can be.
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Watch out! It's quite possible that some of my best mistakes haven't yet been made.
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I either want less corruption, or more chance to participate in it.
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One good thing about my computer: it never asks why.
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It could be that the purpose of your life is only to serve as a warning to others.
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The task I've been given seems absurd: To wait here on earth until I no longer exist.
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Should I abide by the rules until they're changed, or help speed the change by breaking them?
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If you can't learn to do it well, learn to enjoy doing it badly.
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Living on earth may be expensive, but it includes an annual free trip around the sun.
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Some books make me want to go adventuring, others feel that they have saved me the trouble.

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Not even a great leader can get very far without great people to lead.
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Some books makes me want to go adventuring, others feel that they have saved me the trouble.
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Strangely enough, this is the past that somebody in the future is longing to go back to.
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The really great people are the ones who know how to make the little people feel great.
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To be sure of hitting the target, shoot first, and call whatever you hit the target.
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Try to relax and enjoy the crisis.
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Words are a wonderful form of communication, but they will never replace kisses and punches.
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My life has a superb cast but I can't figure out the plot.
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Everything takes longer than you expect - even when you expect it to take longer than you expect.
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