It is kind of interesting--maybe irrelevant to the paper, but all the "profound" sentences rely on a comparison:

  1. power vs. persistence
  4. things you say and things you do not say
  6. our flaws and other's flaws
  7. open door and entering (what your teacher does and what you must do)
  9. the comparison is implied but trying something new vs never trying something new.
  11. again implied but imagined pain versus real pain
  14. tempted and resisting vs tempted and falling.

whereas the "bullshit" sentences seem mostly to be simpler constructs.

  2:  a causes b
  3:  a causes b for c
  5:  a and b provides c for d
  8:  a changes b (this one has a very weakly implied comparison, because "universal observations" 
  changes and is therefore not "universal", but there is no specificity about the difference so it 
  is not really a comparison, just noting the change.) 
  etc.

there are no comparisons in them. I wonder if that has anything to do with just the structure we're used to for aphorisms and folk wisdom?