Failure™ Magazine

Ifferisms

Ifferisms: An Anthology of Aphorisms That Begin With the Word If, by Dr. Mardy Grothe, Collins Reference.

Review by Jason Zasky  Filed under Book Reviews

“Do you know what an aphorism is?” asks Dr. Mardy Grothe in the introduction to “Ifferisms.” I didn’t—at least I couldn’t verbalize a definition before reading this book. According to Grothe, an “aphorism is a brief observation that attempts to communicate some kind of truth about the human experience,” and in “Ifferisms,” he presents nearly two-thousand quotations that begin with the word if—hence the title.

Over the course of 18 chapters, Grothe covers everything from: words to live by (“If you are not failing every now and again, it’s a sign you’re playing it safe” —Woody Allen); sports (“If people don’t want to come to the ballpark, nobody’s going to stop them”—Yogi Berra); sex, love & romance (“If you aren’t going to go all the way, why go at all?”—Joe Namath); and so-called classics, such as, “If anything can go wrong, it will.”

Reading “Ifferisms,” it’s easy to see why Grothe’s previous books—including “Oxymoronica” and “I Never Metaphor I Didn’t Like”—were so popular. Unlike most quotation anthologies, which tend to consist of nothing more than a list of quotes organized by subject, Grothe gives the reader the back story behind many of his selections, especially valuable when a quote has been misattributed or there is some controversy as to its origins.

So … if you buy only one quote book all year, make this the one.

DrMardy.com