An aphorism is never exactly true. It is either a half-truth or a truth and a half.
Aphorism Quotes
Aphorisms are salted, not sugared, almonds at Reason’s feast.
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 or more intelligent than his readers. For this reason the aphorist who adopts a folksy style with “democratic” diction and grammar is a cowardly and insufferable […]
This delivering of knowledge in distinct and disjointed aphorisms doth leave the wit of man more free to turn and toss, and to make use of that which is so delivered to more several purposes and applications.
An aphorism is true where it has fixed the impression of a genuine experience.
The hunter for aphorisms on human nature has to fish in muddy water; and he is even condemned to find much of his own mind.
The great writers of aphorisms read as if they had all known each other well.
The aphorism is cultivated only by those who have known fear in the midst of words, that fear of collapsing with all the words.
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.
The only way to read a book of aphorisms without being bored is to open it at random and, having found something that interests you, close the book and meditate.
