# Julian Tuwim's best aphorisms and epigrams

"Congratulations: the most polite form of envy", a pun on clear vodka and clean elections, and "other countries are hotels": the sharpest aphorisms and lines by the Polish poet Julian Tuwim (1894–1953), mostly from "Jarmark rymów" and "Polish Flowers", with the source.

- 29 votes · 15 items
- Oct 9, 2023 · Mateusz Woźniak
- https://even.best/en/l/5327/julian-tuwim-s-best-aphorisms-and-epigrams

## Top 15

1. **Congratulations: the most polite form of envy.** (4 · ▲4 ▼0) — From "Jarmark rymów" (Collected Works, Czytelnik 1955, p. 547).
2. **"Czysta wyborowa" (clear vodka) is bad for the cleanness of elections (a pun on wybór, choice).** (3 · ▲3 ▼0) — From "Jarmark rymów" (Collected Works, Czytelnik 1955).
3. **Patience: despair wearing the mask of virtue.** (3 · ▲3 ▼0) — From "Jarmark rymów" (Collected Works, Czytelnik 1955, p. 551).
4. **Wealth: the savings of many in the hands of one.** (3 · ▲3 ▼0) — From "Jarmark rymów" (Collected Works, Czytelnik 1955).
5. **Bar: a place you go every evening for the last time in your life.** (2 · ▲2 ▼0) — From "Jarmark rymów" (Collected Works, Czytelnik 1955).
6. **Blessed is he who, having nothing to say, does not clothe that fact in words.** (1 · ▲2 ▼1) — From "Jarmark rymów" (Collected Works, Czytelnik 1955, p. 545).
7. **If the egg had a different shape, / a hen's life would be monstrous.** (1 · ▲2 ▼1) — From "Jarmark rymów" (Collected Works, Czytelnik 1955, p. 543).
8. **You can talk nonsense. Just not in a solemn tone.** (1 · ▲2 ▼1) — From "Jarmark rymów" (Collected Works, Czytelnik 1955).
9. **Those who speak in the name of God should show their credentials.** (1 · ▲1 ▼0) — From "Jarmark rymów" (Collected Works, Czytelnik 1955, p. 546).
10. **Children talk nonsense and want to be nonsensed to. Then they grow out of it. The one who doesn't becomes a poet.** (1 · ▲1 ▼0) — From "Pegaz dęba", his anthology of poetic oddities.
11. **To meet your most distant relatives, all you need is to get rich…** (0 · ▲1 ▼1) — From "Jarmark rymów" (Collected Works, Czytelnik 1955).
12. **When something gets in your eye, remember it's a little piece of the cosmos.** (0 · ▲0 ▼0) — From "Jarmark rymów" (Collected Works, Czytelnik 1955).
13. **My homeland / is my home. The Polish house / fell to my lot. That is my homeland, / and other countries are hotels.** (0 · ▲0 ▼0) — From the poem "Polish Flowers" (1940–1946).
14. **Let law always mean law, / and justice mean justice.** (0 · ▲0 ▼0) — From the poem "Polish Flowers" (1940–1946).
15. **Even after you've jumped, don't say "hop". First look at what you've jumped into.** (-1 · ▲0 ▼1) — From "Jarmark rymów" (Collected Works, Czytelnik 1955, p. 534).

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.