What is an Aphorism?
Usually an aphorism, sometimes known as wisdom literature, is a concise statement containing a subjective truth or observation cleverly and pithily written.
The word aphorism (literally “distinction” or “definition”, from the Greek: ἀφορισμός, aphorismós ap-horizein “from-to bound”) denotes an original thought, spoken or written in a laconic and easily memorable form.
The name was first used in the Aphorisms of Hippocrates. The term came to be applied later to other sententious statements of physical science and later still to statements of all kinds of philosophical, moral or literary principles.
The Aphorisms of Hippocrates were one of the earliest collections, although the earlier Book of Proverbs is similar. Hippocrates includes such notable and often invoked phrases as:
“Life is short, [the] art long, opportunity fleeting, experience misleading, judgment difficult. The physician must not only be prepared to do what is right himself, but also to make the patient, the attendants, and externals cooperate.”
The aphoristic genre developed together with literacy and, after the invention of printing, aphorisms were collected and published in book form. The first noted published collection of aphorisms is Adagia by Erasmus of Rotterdam. Other important early aphorists were François de La Rochefoucauld and Blaise Pascal.
Two influential collections of aphorisms published in the 20th century were The Uncombed Thoughts by Stanislaw Jerzy Lec (in Polish), and Itch of Wisdom by Mikhail Turovsky (in Russian). Many societies have traditional sages or culture heroes to whom aphorisms are commonly attributed, such as the Seven Sages of Greece, Confucius or King Solomon.
Aphorisms can be both prosaic or poetic, sometimes they have repeated words or phrases, and sometimes they have two parts that are of the same grammatical structure. Some examples include:
Good Art seems ancient to its contemporaries, and modern – to their descendants. – Plutarch
All is Vanity – Solomon
Lost time is never found again. – Benjamin Franklin
Mediocrity is forgiven more easily than talent.
– Emil Krotky
Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm.
– Ralph Waldo Emerson
I have nothing to say, I am saying it, and that is poetry.
– John Cage
That which does not destroy us makes us stronger.
– Friedrich Nietzsche
So many ingredients in the soup, no room for a spoon.
– Paul Haines
Many of those who tried to enlighten were hanged from the lampposts.
– Stanislaw Jerzy Lec
You can play a shoestring if you’re sincere.
– John Coltrane
It is not uncommon to commiserate with a stranger’s misfortune, but it takes a really fine nature to appreciate a friend’s success.
– Oscar Wilde
Only that which always existed can be eternal.
– G. Antuan Suárez
Believe nothing you hear, and only half of what you see.
– Mark Twain
Don’t play the saxophone. Let it play you.
– Charlie Parker
It is better to be hated for what one is, than loved for what one is not.
– André Gide
Like a road in Autumn: Hardly is it swept clean before it is covered again with dead leaves. – Franz Kafka
There is no such thing as a wrong note. – Art Tatum
Truths are not relative. What are relative are opinions about truth.
– Nicolás Gómez Dávila
(This information on Aphorisms can be found on Wikipedia.)
