aphorism

She had a wealth of Dale Carnegie-esque aphorisms to pump up her young charge, such as “put on your magic shoes,” or “Mind is in every cell of the body. Thoughts are everything.”

There’s another old aphorism about wealth, credited to the burlesque star and actress, Sophie Tucker.

In an aphorism sometimes attributed to Leo Tolstoy, sometimes to John Gardner, all literature relies on one of two plots: A person goes on a journey or a stranger comes to town.

The queen of all she surveys, she speaks in moony aphorisms, is posing for Vanity Fair and orchestrating a fundraising gala, among minor entertainments.

In Atwood’s first novel, she exists only through the viewpoint of June and most often as the source of aphorisms.