The cold is a good counselor, but it is cold.

Antonio Porchia (1943)
trans. W.S. Merwin

source: pome

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/articles/145909/translator39s-note-from-voices-by-antonio-porchia
“Never say I write aphorisms, I would be humiliated,” Porchia is reported to have said.