aphorism

(ăf'ə-rĭz'əm)

1. A tersely phrased statement of a truth or opinion; an adage. See synonyms at saying.
2. A brief statement of a principle.

[French aphorisme, from Old French, from Late Latin aphorismus, from Greek aphorismos, from aphorizein, to delimit, define : apo-, apo- + horizein, to delimit, define; see horizon.]

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noun

A usually pithy and familiar statement expressing an observation or principle generally accepted as wise or true: adage, byword, maxim, motto, proverb, saw, saying. See words.

aphorism, a statement of some general principle, expressed memorably by condensing much wisdom into few words: ‘Give a man a mask and he will tell you the truth’ (Wilde); ‘The road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom’ (Blake). Aphorisms often take the form of a definition: ‘Hypocrisy is a homage paid by vice to virtue’ (La Rochefoucauld). An author who composes aphorisms is an aphorist.

Adjective: aphoristic.

A concise and often witty statement of wisdom or opinion, such as “Children should be seen and not heard,” or “People who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones.”

A brief statement containing an important truth or fundamental principle.

n.

Predigested wisdom.

    The flabby wine-skin of his brain
    Yields to some pathologic strain,
    And voids from its unstored abysm
    The driblet of an aphorism.
                                           "The Mad Philosopher," 1697

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• Rhetoric and Figures of Speech - aphorism: succinct, memorable statement of a truth; maxim

Not to be confused with aphorismus.

"Aphorisms" redirects here. For the Red Sparowes album, see Aphorisms (album).

An aphorism is an original thought, spoken or written in a laconic (concise) and memorable form.^[1] Aphorism literally means a "distinction" or "definition", from Greek ἀφορισμός (aphorismós), which is from ἀπό (apo) and ὁρίζειν (horizein), meaning "from/to bound". The term was first used in the Aphorisms of Hippocrates. The oft-cited first sentence of this work (see Ars longa, vita brevis) is:

“

"Life is short, art long, opportunity fleeting, experience deceptive, judgment difficult."

”

The term was later applied to maxims of physical science, then statements of all kinds of philosophical, moral, or literary principles. In modern usage an aphorism is generally understood to be a concise statement containing a subjective truth or observation cleverly and pithily written.

Contents 1 Literature 2 Society 3 See also 4 References

Literature

Aphoristic collections, sometimes known as wisdom literature, have a prominent place in the canons of several ancient societies, such as the Sutra literature of India, the Biblical Ecclesiastes, Islamic Hadith, The Golden Verses of Pythagoras, Hesiod's Works and Days, the Delphic maxims, and Epictetus' Handbook. Aphoristic collections also make up an important part of the work of some modern authors, such as Josemaría Escrivá (compiled from other spiritual authors), Georg Christoph Lichtenberg, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Arthur Schopenhauer, Søren Kierkegaard, Helena Blavatsky, Friedrich Nietzsche, Ludwig Wittgenstein, Franz Kafka, Karl Kraus, Montaigne, La Rouchefoucauld, Stanislaw Jerzy Lec, Andrzej Majewski, Mikhail Turovsky, Antonio Porchia, Celia Green, Robert A. Heinlein, Blaise Pascal, E. M. Cioran and Oscar Wilde. A 1559 oil–on–oak-panel painting, Netherlandish Proverbs (also called The Blue Cloak or The Topsy Turvy World) by Pieter Brueghel the Elder, artfully depicts a land populated with literal renditions of Flemish aphorisms (proverbs) of the day.

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 Baltasar Gracián, 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 and English).^[2]

Society

In many cultures, including Samuel Johnson's England, many East and Southeast Asian societies, and throughout the world, the ability to spontaneously produce aphoristic sayings at exactly the right moment is a key determinant of social status. 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.

Misquoted or misadvised aphorisms are frequently used as a source of humour; for instance, wordplays of aphorisms appear in the works of P. G. Wodehouse, Terry Pratchett and Douglas Adams. Aphorisms being misquoted by sports players, coaches, and commentators form the basis of Private Eye's Colemanballs section.

See also

Look up aphorism in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Aphorisms

Wikisource has original text related to this article: Aphorisms

• Adage
• Book of Proverbs
• Chiasmus
• Cliché
• Ecclesiastes
• Wisdom of Sirach
• Epigram
• Gospel of Thomas
• Greguería
• Maxim
• Proverb
• Pseudo-Phocylides
• Sūtra

References

1. ^ Definition of aphorism from the Online Etymology Dictionary
2. ^ http://www.peoples.ru/art/painter/turovskiy/

•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. 

This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)

Dansk (Danish)
n. - aforisme, strøtanke

Nederlands (Dutch)
aforisme, korte principiële uitspraak

Français (French)
n. - aphorisme

Deutsch (German)
n. - Aphorismus, Maxime

Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - αφορισμός, απόφθεγμα

Italiano (Italian)
aforisma

Português (Portuguese)
n. - aforismo (m), provérbio (m)

Русский (Russian)
афоризм

Español (Spanish)
n. - aforismo

Svenska (Swedish)
n. - aforism

中文（简体）(Chinese (Simplified))
谚语, 格言, 警语

中文（繁體）(Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 諺語, 格言, 警語

한국어 (Korean)
n. - 금언, 격언

日本語 (Japanese)
n. - アフォリズム, 警句, 格言

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(الاسم) حكمه, قول مأثور‏

עברית (Hebrew)
n. - ‮פתגם, מימרה, הגדרה קצרה של עיקרון‬

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