"Cynical Maxims and Marginalia" is a collection of cognitive projectiles. They pierce the reader's pretensions, illusions, and unexamined assumptions. They provide flashes of insight along with an occasional good laugh at mankind's expense. There is little effort here to prove any point, demonstrate any claim, or justify any supposition. Persuasion is of secondary interest. The primary intention is to incite, to puncture, and to awaken the reader from slumber. The maxim is the author's weapon of choice-a scattershot delivery system. The book lets fly in all directions, but takes particular aim at no one- or at everyone (which amounts to much the same thing). Careful argumentation has its place and value, but so does firing off a quiver full of flaming rhetorical arrows. These are haphazard shots loosed into the darkness. Take cover.