This is the first book of Maria Luisa Spaziani's aphorisms in English translation. Linking aphorism and poetry, she "shows no trace of hypocrisy", as Gino Ruozzi observes, and "her pungent and elitist dictates scourge accepted ideas and cut to the quick a lot of comfortable platitudes". A widely published poet, literary translator, essayist and academic, Maria Luisa Spaziani is one of Italy's most distinguished writers.