APHORISM, n. Predigested wisdom. The flabby wine-skin of his brain Yields to some pathologic strain, And voids from its unstored abysm The driblet of an aphorism. "The Mad Philosopher," 1697 — Ambrose Bierce
An aphorism is a personal observation inflated into a universal truth, a private posing as a general. — Stefan Kanfer
The excellence of aphorisms consists not so much in the expression of some rare or abstruse sentiment, as in the comprehension of some useful truth in a few words. — Samuel Johnson
An aphorism is never exactly true; it is either a half-truth or one-and-a-half truths. — Karl Kraus
An aphorism ought to be entirely isolated from the surrounding world like a little work of art and complete in itself like a hedgehog. — Friedrich Von Schlegel
An aphorism ought to be entirely isolated from the surrounding world like a little work of art and complete in itself like a hedgehog. — Karl Wilhelm Friedrich Schlegel
Aphorisms are bad for novels. They stick in the reader's teeth. — Anatole Broyard
A good aphorism is too hard for the tooth of time, and is not worn away by all the centuries, although it serves as food for every epoch. — Friedrich Nietzsche
A short saying often contains much wisdom. — Sophocles
Exclusively of the abstract sciences, the largest and worthiest portion of our knowledge consists of aphorisms: and the greatest and best of men is but an aphorism. — Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Writing an upbeat aphorism is a temptation, but decorum forbids. — Mason Cooley
A proverb is a short sentence based on long experience. — Miguel de Cervantes
Our live experiences, fixed in aphorisms, stiffen into cold epigrams. Our heart's blood, as we write it, turns to mere dull ink. — Francis H. Bradley
I got a note from my father, who said that Success is wonderful, if you don't inhale. That was his own aphorism, and I think it's the very best thing he could have said to me or anyone else on the subject. — Sam Waterston
How many of us have been attracted to reason; first learned to think, to draw conclusions, to extract a moral from the follies of life, by some dazzling aphorism. — Edward George BulwerLytton
How many of us have been first attracted to reason, first learned to think, to draw conclusions, to extract a moral from the follies of life, by some dazzling aphorism from Rochefoucauld or La Bruyere. — Bill Vaughan
How many of us have been attracted to reason; first learned to think, to draw conclusions, to extract a moral from the follies of life, by some dazzling aphorism. — Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton
Our live experiences, fixed in aphorisms, stiffen into cold epigrams. Our heart's blood, as we write it, turns to mere dull ink. — F. H. Bradley
On the last day, when the general examination takes place, there will be no question at all on the text of Aristotle, the aphorisms of Hippocrates, or the paragraphs of Justinian. Charity will be the whole syllabus. — Robert Bellarmine
There is, however, only one idea of duty which has been universally accepted by all mankind, of all ages and sects and countries, and that has been summed up in a Sanskrit aphorism thus: "Do not injure any being; not injuring any being is virtue, injuring any being is sin." — Swami Vivekananda
The aphorism is cultivated only by those who have known fear in the midst of words, that fear of collapsing with all the words. — Emile M. Cioran
We have oftener than once endeavoured to attach some meaning to that aphorism, vulgarly imputed to Shaftesbury, which however we can find nowhere in his works, that "ridicule is the test of truth." — John Keats
If we couldn't laugh at ourselves, that would be the end of everything. — Niels Bohr
The old aphorisms are basically sound. First impressions are lasting. — Jessie Redmon Fauset
The history of Western science confirms the aphorism that the great menace to progress is not ignorance but the illusion of knowledge. — Daniel J. Boorstin
An ancient Vedic aphorism says, "Infinite flexibility is the secret to immortality." When we cultivate flexibility in or consciousness, we renew ourselves in every moment and reverse the aging process. — Deepak Chopra
All complaining comes from pride. — Joyce Meyer
The aphorism "Whatever is, is right," would be as final as it is lazy, did it not include the troublesome consequence that nothing that ever was, was wrong. — Charles Dickens
Aphorisms are essentially an aristocratic genre of writing. The aphorist does not argue or explain, he asserts; and implicit in his assertion is a conviction that he is wiser and more intelligent than his readers. — W. H. Auden
Hit the nail on the head. — John Heywood
An aphorism is true where it has fixed the impression of a genuine experience. — F. H. Bradley
The trick to writing an aphorism is to place a period at the point where you're inclined to say, "in other words. — Robert Breault
All of us encounter, at least once in our life, some individual who utters words that make us think forever. There are men whose phrases are oracles; who condense in one sentence the secrets of life; who blurt out an aphorism that forms a character or illustrates an existence. — Benjamin Disraeli
In Conclusion
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