Definition:
1. A tersely phrased statement of a truth or opinion. Adjective: aphoristic.
2. A brief statement of a principle.
See also:
- 2,000 Pure Fools: An Anthology of Aphorisms
- Epigram
- Malaphor
- Maxim
- "Phrases and Philosophies for the Use of the Young," by Oscar Wilde
- Proverb
- Quotation
- Sententia
- What Is a Maxim?
Etymology:
From the Greek, "to delimit, define"Examples and Observations:
- "The word aphorism was first employed by Hippocrates to describe a collection of concise principles, primarily medical, beginning with the famous, 'Life is short, art is long, opportunity fleeting, experimentation dangerous, reasoning difficult. . . .' Eventually the term was applied to statements of principles in law and agriculture and extended to other areas."
(G. A. Test, Satire: Spirit and Art. Univ. Press of Florida, 1991) - "Sits he on ever so high a throne, a man still sits on his bottom."
(Montaigne) - "I have been testing the aphorism, 'A watched pot never boils.' I have boiled the same amount of water in this kettle 62 times. In some cases I have ignored the kettle; in others, I have watched it intently. In every instance, the water reaches its boiling point in precisely 51.7 seconds. It appears I am not capable of perceiving time any differently than my internal chronometer."
(Lt. Commander Data in "Timescape." Star Trek: The Next Generation, 1993) - "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it."
(often attributed to Voltaire, the words are in fact Tallentyre's summary of Voltaire's attitude toward Helvetius after the burning of the latter's writings in 1759) - "All men should strive to learn before they die, what they are running from, and to, and why."
(James Thurber) - "If you always do what you always did, you will always get what you always got."
(Jackie "Moms" Mabley) - "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) - "The aphorist does not argue or explain, he asserts; and implicit in his assertion is a conviction that he is wiser or more intelligent than his readers."
(W.H. Auden, quoted by Arthur Krystal in Except When I Write: Reflections of a Recovering Critic, Oxford Univ. Press, 2011) - "The first rule of Fight Club is--you do not talk about Fight Club."
(Brad Pitt as Tyler Durden, Fight Club) - "An idealist is one who, on noticing that a rose smells better than a cabbage, concludes that it will also make better soup."
(H.L. Mencken) - "Expect nothing. Live frugally on surprise."
(Alice Walker) - "Your children need your presence more than your presents."
(Jesse Jackson) - "We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful what we pretend to be."
(Kurt Vonnegut, Mother Night) - "The quoting of an aphorism, like the angry barking of a dog or the smell of overcooked broccoli, rarely indicates that something helpful is about to happen."
(Lemony Snicket, Horseradish: Bitter Truths You Can't Avoid. HarperCollins, 2007)
Pronunciation: AF-uh-riz-um
Also Known As: saying, maxim, adage, cliché, saw, dictum, precept
