Aphorism Quotes

There are aphorisms that, like airplanes, stay up only while they are in motion.

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.

Someone who can write aphorisms should not fritter away his time in essays.

Aphorisms are bad for novels. They stick in the reader's teeth.

We endeavor to stuff the universe into the gullet of an aphorism.

Aphorisms are the true form of the universal philosophy.

The great writers of aphorisms read as if they had all known each other well.

An aphorism is never exactly true; it is either a half-truth or one-and-a-half truths.

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.

The aphorism is cultivated only by those who have known fear in the midst of words, that fear of collapsing with all the words.

APHORISM, n. Predigested wisdom.

An aphorism is a personal observation inflated into a universal truth, a private posing as a general.

Writing an upbeat aphorism is a temptation, but decorum forbids.

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."

Beyond Good and Evil, Aphorism 153

If we couldn't laugh at ourselves, that would be the end of everything.

The trick to writing an aphorism is to place a period at the point where you're inclined to say, "in other words.

Always be civil to the girls, you never know who they may marry.

An aphorism is true where it has fixed the impression of a genuine experience.

The striking aphorism requires a stricken aphorist.

My premise is that the popular aphorism that 'all religions are fundamentally the same and only superficially different' simply is not true. It is more correct to say that all religions are, at best, superficially similar but fundamentally different.

Most of my writing consists of an attempt to translate aphorisms into continuous prose.

An aphorism should be like a burr: sting, ... and leave a little soreness.

One of the aphorisms occurred to me now and I wrote it under the picture: "Fate and temperament are two words for one and the same concept." That was clear to me now.

'Character," says Novalis, in one of his questionable aphorisms - character is destiny'.