Aphorism Quotes

An aphorism is the last link in a long chain of thought. (Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach)
An aphorism is never exactly true it is either a half-truth or one-and-a-half truths. View quote
Karl Kraus
The aphorism is cultivated only by those who have known fear in the midst of words, that fear of collapsing with all the words. View quote
Emil Cioran
The laughter of the aphorism is sometimes triumphant, but seldom carefree. View quote
Mason Cooley
An aphorism? Fire without flames. Understandable that no one tries to warm himself at it. View quote
Emil Cioran
The history of Western science confirms the aphorism that the great menace to progress is not ignorance but the illusion of knowledge. View quote
Daniel J. Boorstin
I got a note from my father, who said that Success is wonderful, if you don't inhale. That was his own aphorism, and I think it's the very best thing he could have said to me or anyone else on the subject. View quote
Sam Waterston
As the aphorism says, If you have to ask, you can't afford it. View quote
Daniel Handler
This case, involving legal requirements for the content and labeling of meat products such as frankfurters, affords a rare opportunity to explore simultaneously both parts of Bismarck's aphorism that 'No man should see how laws or sausages are made. View quote
Antonin Scalia
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." View quote
Thomas Carlyle
An aphorism ought to be entirely isolated from the surrounding world like a little work of art and complete in itself like a hedgehog. (Friedrich Schlegel)
The aphorism "as a man thinketh in his heart so is he" contains the secret of life. View quote
Bruce Lee
Hegel made famous his aphorism that all the rational is real and all the real rational; but there are many of us who, unconvinced by Hegel, continue to believe that the real, the really real, is irrational, that reason builds upon irrationalities. Hegel, a great framer of definitions, attempted with definitions to reconstruct the universe, like that artillery sergeant who said that cannon were made by taking a hole and enclosing it with steel. View quote
Miguel de Unamuno
On a recent Sunday evening, Theo came up with an aphorism: the bigger you think, the crappier it looks. Asked to explain he said, "When we go on about the big things, the political situation, global warming, world poverty, it all looks really terrible, with nothing getting better, nothing to look forward to. But when I think small, closer in – you know, a girl I've just met, or this song we're going to do with Chas, or snowboarding next month, then it looks great. So this is going to be my motto – think small." View quote
Ian McEwan
Even more than in a poem, it is the aphorism that the word is god. View quote
Emil Cioran
My best definition of a nerd: someone who asks you to explain an aphorism. View quote
Nassim Nicholas Taleb
We have the highest authority for believing that the meek shall inherit the earth; though I have never found any particular corroboration of this aphorism in the records of Somerset House. View quote
F. E. Smith, 1st Earl of Birkenhead
An aphorism is not a cliche: it penetrates & bites. It has wit, and consequently an affinity with satire...Christ speaks in aphorisms, not because they are alive, but because he is. View quote
Northrop Frye
One cannot dictate an aphorism to a typist. It would take too long. An aphorism never coincides with the truth: it is either a half-truth or one-and-a-half truths. View quote
Karl Kraus
An aphorism is a generalization of sorts, and our present-day writers seem more at home with the particular. View quote
Anatole Broyard
Santayana's aphorism must be reversed: too often it is those who can remember the past who are condemned to repeat it. (Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr.)
Writing an upbeat aphorism is a temptation, but decorum forbids. View quote
Mason Cooley
In an aphorism, aptness counts for more than truth. View quote
Mason Cooley
A true aphorism legitimates itself; whoever feels the need to legitimate an aphorism, admits that it is illegal. The surface of an aphorism should conceal profound truth. The claim that everybody can learn everything is superficial, but is as wrong as it can be. As a matter of fact, it is no aphorism but an advertising slogan, and the excuse that it is an aphorism, is a mere wink: in advertising you cannot do without exaggerating. But even as a wink it does not become more true. View quote
Hans Freudenthal
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. View quote
Samuel Taylor Coleridge