Aphorism

What is Aphorism?
1.–noun a terse saying embodying a general truth, or astute observation, as “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely” (Lord Acton).

2. aph·o·rism (āf'ə-rĭz'əm)
n.
A tersely phrased statement of a truth or opinion; an adage. See Synonyms at saying.
A brief statement of a principle.

3. 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.”

4. Usually an aphorism is a concise statement containing a subjective truth or observation cleverly and pithily written. Aphorisms can be both prosaic or poetic, sometimes they have repeated words or phrases, and sometimes they have two parts that are of the same grammatical structure. Some examples include:

• Good Art seems ancient to its contemporaries, and modern - to their descendants. — Plutarch
• All is Vanity - Solomon
• Lost time is never found again. — Benjamin Franklin
• Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's; and to God the things that are God's. — Jesus Christ, Matt. 22:21 KJV
• Mediocrity is forgiven more easily than talent. — Emil Krotky
• Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm. — Ralph Waldo Emerson
• I have nothing to say, I am saying it, and that is poetry. — John Cage
• They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.— Benjamin Franklin
• That which does not destroy us makes us stronger. — Friedrich Nietzsche
• If you see the teeth of the lion, do not think that the lion is smiling at you. — Al-Mutanabbi
• The first ape who became a man thus committed treason against his own kind. — Mikhail Turovsky
• So many ingredients in the soup, no room for a spoon. — Paul Haines
• Many of those who tried to enlighten were hanged from the lampposts. — Stanislaw Jerzy Lec
• A mystic hangs a fig leaf on a eunuch. — Stanislaw Jerzy Lec
• You can play a shoestring if you're sincere. — John Coltrane
• The psychology of committees is a special case of the psychology of mobs. — Celia Green
• It is not uncommon to commiserate with a stranger's misfortune, but it takes a really fine nature to appreciate a friend's success. — Oscar Wilde
• Hypocrisy is the tribute that vice pays to virtue. — Unknown, possibly French proverb, or authored by François de La Rochefoucauld
• Only that which always existed can be eternal. — G. Antuan Suárez
• Believe nothing you hear, and only half of what you see. — Mark Twain
• Don't play the saxophone. Let it play you. — Charlie Parker
• It is better to be hated for what one is, than loved for what one is not. — André Gide
• Like a road in Autumn: Hardly is it swept clean before it is covered again with dead leaves. — Franz Kafka
• Love the sinner and hate the sin. (Cum dilectione hominum et odio vitiorum.) — St. Augustine of Hippo[3]
• There is no such thing as a wrong note. — Art Tatum

• Truths are not relative. What are relative are opinions about truth. — Nicolás Gómez Dávila

• Those who cannot remember the past, are condemned to repeat it. — "George Santayana's
• Aphorism on Repetitive Consequences," from "The Life of Reason," Volume 1: "Reason in Common Sense," 1905.