Famous and timeless aphorisms

Here is my collection of favorites! This collection will be amended as time goes by. The numbering/ordering does not indicate rank or importance!

1.  The road to hell is paved with good intentions (Wikipedia)
   Comment: Be skeptical of do-gooders! Government paternalism and nanny state are examples of that!
2. Si vis pacem, para bellum
   (If you want peace, prepare for war, Wikipedia)
   Comment: Or credible deterrence is the best defense! The flip side: Any military force can also be used for undesirable offensive actions or for military coups etc.!
3. I know that I know nothing
   (perhaps Socrates's greatest wisdom or gift to humanity, Wikipedia)
   Comment: Be very humble! Unfortunately, even in the 21st century a very large majority of the human population unwisely ignore this quintessential wisdom passed down more than 2400 years ago. The more educated people are, the more they tend to ignore this wisdom! The pretense of knowledge is everywhere and occurs all the time!
4. Pretense of knowledge
    (E.g. Friedrich August von Hayek's Nobel prize lecture) is the companion to the Socratic "I know that I know nothing" aphorism.
   Comment: This is most likely the greatest and most enduring scourge of all humanity! Most ideologies, past and present, known to mankind are essentially based on a pretense of knowledge!
5. Spontaneous order which is the result of human action but not of human design
   Espoused by e.g. by the Scottish Enlightenment and Adam Smith in his An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations known and often ridiculed as e.g. the Invisible Hand. Friedrich August von Hayek elaborated on it.
   Comment: Most humans in the past and in the present think they know best how to govern human affairs (human hubris and arrogance; clearly a case of pretense of knowledge and a violation of I know I know nothing). Unfortunately, human nature for many millennia has been strongly against laissez fair, laissez passer. C'est vraiment dommage!
   
6. Occam's Razor! The principle of parsimony has been know at least since the 14th century AD thanks to the Franciscan friar William of Occam.
   Comment: Simple explanations often beat complicated ones. Or beware of complicated explanations!
7. Falsifiability. How to separate fact from fiction or science from pseudo science and charlatanry!
   Comment: When you look at politics today it is still largely driven by evoking medieval superstitions (e.g. Global Warming hoax, Climate Change religion)