Quotes About Aphorism

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

There is an aphorism that you cannot buy the loyalty of an Afghan, but you can always rent it.

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. Hence it is the greatest paradox in literature, the imperishable in the midst of change, the nourishment which always remains highly valued, as salt does, and never becomes stupid like salt.

An aphorism ought to be entirely isolated from the surrounding world like a little work of art and complete in itself like a hedgehog.

Hmm,' said the King. 'I must write that down in my book of aphorisms. I don't know if it is deep, but it sounds deep.

Reductionism in the physical sciences has been challenged by the principle of emergence. The whole system acquires qualitatively new properties that cannot be predicted from the simple addition of those of its individual components. One might apply the aphorism that the new system is greater than the sum of its parts. There is a phase shift, a change in the organizational structure, going from one scale to the next.

An aphorism never coincides with the truth: it is either a half-truth or one-and-a-half truths.

An aphorism is never exactly true. It is either a half-truth or a truth and a half.

An aphorism can never be the whole truth; it is either a half-truth or a truth-and-a-half.

Der Aphorismus deckt sich nie mit der Wahrheit; er ist entweder eine halbe Wahrheit oder anderthalb.

A proverb is an exploding atom of wisdom.

In the minds of many, one of Winston's Churchill's most famous aphorisms cuts the conversation short: "Democracy is the worst form of government, except all those other forms that have been tried from time to time."10 But this saying overlooks the fact that the governments vary in scope as well as form. In democracies the main alternative to majority rule is not dictatorship, but markets.

The laughter of the aphorism is sometimes triumphant, but seldom carefree.

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.

A moral lesson is better expressed in short sayings than in long discourse.

Belief in form, but disbelief in content - that's what makes an aphorism charming.

cliches are truisms and all truisms are true

APHORISM, 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

A proverb is one man's wit and all men's wisdom.

ADAGE, n. Boned wisdom for weak teeth.

In this regard, I like to quote a favorite aphorism from Oxford art historian Edgar Wind: "Mediocrity which claims to be intense has a peculiarly repulsive effect.

Mystery] delivered one of the many great aphorisms that that he used to turn defeat into triumph. Where there's a problem, there's an opportunity.

Apothegms are the most infallible mirror to represent a man truly what he is.

Few of the many wise apothegms which have been uttered have prevented a single foolish action.