“Aphorism” is a slightly vague term, especially compared to some of its grammar fellows. An aphorism doesn’t have to follow any strict grammatical rule, unlike palindromes or pangrams. Instead, an ...

“Almost all books of aphorisms, which have ever acquired a reputation, have retained it,” John Stuart Mill wrote in 1837, aphoristically—that is to say, with a neat if slightly dubious finality. (“How ...

The origins of the aphorism are both elevated and abject, as fits a literary form of sublime ambition that is at present in a kind of disgrace. The English word, which seems first to have been used in ...

Forget haikus, epigrams, proverbs, maxims, adages and riddles. If you’re needing a sliver of wisdom, try an aphorism. There are certainly plenty around … “Be the change you want to see in the world.” ...

Short Flights: Thirty-two Modern Writers Share Aphorisms of Insight, Inspiration, and Wit, edited by James Lough and Alex Stein. Schaffner Press. 236 pages. $16.95. Last Aphorisms, by JPJ.

An aphorism is a short or pithy statement that expresses a general truth. Some aphorisms are truisms, obvious on their face, but they still convey useful ideas. One of the best known aphorisms is Ben ...

When we think about philosophy, we usually think big. Philosophy comes to us via long books, grand theoretical systems, complex and interwoven histories of thought that stretch back hundreds or even ...

The aphorism has fallen so badly out of favour that even the word itself now seems to present people with difficulties. After a reading the other week, a girl told me how much she was "looking forward ...

Aphorism is from a Greek word and means to define. It is generally a one-liner used tersely to convey a perspective in a way that once bitten by it you are seldom likely to forget it in a hurry. Some ...

Yes damns no. No postpones yes. Tragic facts don’t exist. The magic of fiction lies in deluding reason that it is fiction. All ways lead to the wayfarer. The long lineage of literature’s shortest form ...