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Aphorism

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The word aphorism (literally "distinction" or "definition", from the Template:Lang-el, aphorismós ap–horizein "from-to bound") denotes an original thought, spoken or written in a laconic and memorable form. The genre is also known as "maxim".

The name was first used in the Aphorisms of Hippocrates later to other sententious statements of physical science and later still to statements of all kinds of philosophical, moral or literary principles.

The Aphorisms of Hippocrates were one of the earliest collections, although the earlier Book of Proverbs is similar. Hippocrates includes such notable and often invoked phrases as:"Life is short, art long, opportunity fleeting, experience misleading, judgment difficult."

Aphorism and 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, Hesiod's Works and Days, or Epictetus' Handbook. Aphoristic collections also make up an important part of the work of some modern authors, such as Georg Christoph Lichtenberg, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Friedrich Nietzsche, Franz Kafka, Karl Kraus, Montaigne, La Rouchefoucauld, Thomas Szasz, Stanislaw Jerzy Lec, Mikhail Turovsky, 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 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).

Poetics of the aphorism

The aphorism is considered a compressed poetic genre in itself. Aphorisms typically make extensive use of such devices as alliteration, anaphora and rhyme.

Examples

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
  • Lost time is never found again. — Benjamin Franklin
  • Mediocrity is forgiven more easily than talent. — Emil Krotky
  • Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm. — Ralph Waldo Emerson
  • 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
  • Wrong life cannot be lived rightly. — Theodor Adorno
  • 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
  • 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
  • When you are expected to exceed expectations, expect the unexpected. — Oleg Vishnepolsky
  • 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
  • Empathy is lost whenever it is most needed. — Arturo Mendívil
  • Believe nothing you hear, and only half of what you see. — Mark Twain
  • It is better to be hated for what one is, than loved for what one is not. — André Gide
  • 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, "The Life of Reason," Volume 1: "Reason in Common Sense," 1905.

Aphorism and society

In a number of cultures, such as 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 (e.g. Zaphod Beeblebrox saying "Right now I need aphorisms like I need holes in my heads"). Aphorisms being misquoted by sports players, coaches, and commentators form the basis of Private Eye's Colemanballs section.

Aphorists

An aphorist is someone who produces or collects aphorisms. Famous aphorists include:

See also

References

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