There are often curious, sometimes unbelievable stories behind our terms, idioms and proverbs. Here you learn how the bloody events of the American Civil War gave us the dreaded deadlines, why we speak of butterflies in the stomach when we mean love, and why one should absolutely avoid bringing something to the trapeze.

A chronological selection in which the most important representatives of German literature, who cultivated aphorism as an art form in their own right, have their say with their masterly creations: from Lichtenberg and Goethe to Nietzsche and Karl Kraus to Handke, Botho Strauss and Martin Walser. The publisher Friedemann Spicker has been researching aphorisms for years.

Two-volume set covers all written languages of Russian Federaton and gives their comprehensive overview.

Materialy Mezhdunarodnoi nauchnoi konferentsii (Kostroma, 18-20 marta 2004 g)