Yahia Lababidi

Yahia Lababidi's book of aphorisms, Signposts, is available - re-issued, revised, and with new material - directly from Jane Street Press. He has also sent me seven new aphorisms:

Whether having sex, or crossing the street - we make daily negotiations with others just to keep alive.

Excuses: the first refuge of the failure.

Indirect communication permits us to be reckless with the truth, confessing more than we would ordinarily dare.

Only after we have mastered a thing are we beyond it: such as culture, technique ... even words.

Things are at their most comfortable, before they collapse – be they armchairs or relationships.

It can be just as difficult to catch a whiff of our own anguish as it is to detect our bad breath.

Eye contact: how souls catch fire.