# The wittiest aphorisms of Enrique Jardiel Poncela

"History is the lie, bound in leather", the dictatorship where whatever is not forbidden is compulsory and the epitaph "If you want the highest praise, die": the sharpest lines of the Spanish humorist of the "other" Generation of '27, with the book where they are collected.

- 16 votes · 18 items
- Jan 18, 2021 · Santiago Rodríguez Zapata
- https://even.best/en/l/5098/the-wittiest-aphorisms-of-enrique-jardiel-poncela

## Top 18

1. **There are two ways to achieve happiness: one is to play the idiot; the other is to be one.** (2 · ▲2 ▼0) — Quoted in Eduardo Palomo, Cita-logía (2013), p. 132.
2. **Everyone pays attention to barometers, except the weather.** (2 · ▲2 ▼0) — Quoted in José María Albaigès, Un siglo de citas (1997), p. 563.
3. **One is more a slave to the weak than to the strong.** (2 · ▲2 ▼0) — Collected in his works (1997 ed.), vol. III, p. 84.
4. **History is the lie, bound in leather.** (1 · ▲1 ▼0) — Quoted in Luis Señor, Diccionario de citas, p. 275.
5. **Dictatorship: a system of government in which whatever is not forbidden is compulsory.** (1 · ▲1 ▼0) — Quoted in Luis Señor, Diccionario de citas, p. 245.
6. **If you want the highest praise, die.** (1 · ▲1 ▼0) — His epitaph.
7. **All those who have nothing to say speak by shouting.** (1 · ▲1 ▼0) — Quoted in José María Albaigès, Un siglo de citas (1997), p. 127.
8. **Friendship, like the Great Flood, is a phenomenon everyone talks about but no one has seen with their own eyes.** (1 · ▲1 ▼0) — Quoted in Eduardo Palomo, Cita-logía (2013), p. 36.
9. **Someone has said that the moon is so pale because it only lives at night.** (1 · ▲1 ▼0) — Collected in his works (1997 ed.), vol. II, p. 189.
10. **He who does not dare to be intelligent becomes a politician.** (0 · ▲0 ▼0) — Quoted in José María Albaigès, Un siglo de citas (1997), p. 386.
11. **Sincerity was invented by someone who wanted to make life bitter for his neighbour.** (0 · ▲0 ▼0) — Collected in his works (1997 ed.), vol. III, p. 79.
12. **No one lives as worried about money as the rich, except for the poor.** (0 · ▲0 ▼0) — Quoted in Luis Señor, Diccionario de citas, p. 148.
13. **"Et cetera" is the rest of the wise and the excuse of the ignorant.** (0 · ▲0 ▼0) — Quoted in José María Albaigès, Un siglo de citas (1997), p. 272.
14. **One pretends best when what is pretended is pretended for real.** (0 · ▲0 ▼0) — Collected in his works (1997 ed.), vol. III, p. 79.
15. **What we call experience is a chain of mistakes.** (-1 · ▲0 ▼1) — Collected in his works (1997 ed.), vol. III, p. 84.
16. **Sincerity is the passport of bad manners.** (-1 · ▲0 ▼1) — Collected in his works (1997 ed.), vol. III, p. 79.
17. **Nothing is known about death: in the "beyond" there is government censorship.** (-1 · ▲0 ▼1) — Máximas mínimas (Renacimiento, 2016), p. 35.
18. **Giving friendly advice is wanting others to do what we would never do ourselves.** (-1 · ▲0 ▼1) — Collected in his works (1997 ed.), vol. III, p. 85.

How is this ranking ordered? By people's votes: each ▲ adds a point and each ▼ takes one away. Anyone can vote and add what is missing.