Aphorism Quotes

So long as our parents are alive, we are children. Then we become childish. ~ Ljupka Cvetanova

He's been spoiled 'til salt won't save him. ~ Frances Hodgson Burnett

An aphorism is a single sentence that totally exhausts its subject. ~ Robert Breault

A transposable aphorism is a malaise of the urge to be witty, or in other words, a maxim that is untroubled by the fact that the opposite of what it says is equally true so long as it appears to be funny. ~ Umberto Eco

That tried and true aphorism:
Each day is precious. Each day is a gift. If we don't open the wrapping carefully, we might break it and have to return it to the store. And then they're going to ask for a receipt and throw a total shit fit if we've left it at home, and we'll have to call the manager over and give him a good talking-to, and of course eventually he'll relent and tell the clerk to give us full credit, but by then we'll be so upset that we've wasted an hour of our time that we'll end up with a migraine and having to spend the rest of the day in bed, completely defeating the whole idea that each day is supposed to be precious and so forth. ~ Eric Garcia

Wouldn't it be wonderful to have a wise and intuitive counselor available 24/7? You're in luck-you already have one. Your body! Our bodies carry ancient wisdom. We literally live within a temple of intuitive and instinctive wisdom. Sometimes we pay attention and access body wisdom; but unfortunately, the aphorism "Mrs. Smith lived a short distance from her body" is sadly true for many of us. ~ Sue Thoele

You get what you want and you become its slave. ~ Ljupka Cvetanova

wash off the journey ~ Okey Ndibe

If our planet has seen some eighty billion people it is difficult to suppose hat every individual has had his or her own repertory of gestures. Arithmetically, it is simply impossible. Without the slightest doubt, there are far fewer gestures in the world than there are individuals. That finding leads us to a shocking conclusion: a gesture is more individual than an individual. We could put it in the form of an aphorism: many people, few gestures. ~ Milan Kundera

There is, however, only one idea of duty which has been universally accepted by all mankind, of all ages and sects and countries, and that has been summed up in a Sanskrit aphorism thus: "Do not injure any being; not injuring any being is virtue, injuring any being is sin." ~ Swami Vivekananda

Ancient aphorisms outlived centuries. Modern aphorisms can barеly survive from book to book. ~ Ljupka Cvetanova

The aphorism is cultivated only by those who have known fear in the midst of words, that fear of collapsing with all the words. ~ Emile M. Cioran

truth cannot "be reduced to aphorism or formulas. It is something alive and unpronounceable. Story creates an atmosphere in which [truth] becomes discernible as a pattern."3 ~ Parker J. Palmer

Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (October 15, 1844 – August 25, 1900) was a German philosopher. His writing included critiques of religion, morality, contemporary culture, philosophy, and science, using a distinctive style and displaying a fondness for aphorism. Nietzsche's influence remains substantial within and beyond philosophy, notably in existentialism and postmodernism. Nietzsche began his career as a philologist before turning to philosophy. At the age of 24 he became Professor of Classical Philology at the University of Basel, but resigned in 1879 due to health problems, which would plague him for most of his life. In 1889 he exhibited symptoms of a serious mental illness, living out his remaining years in the care of his mother and sister until his death in 1900. ~ Friedrich Nietzsche

He was love blind. His wife walked him through. ~ Ljupka Cvetanova

Wonderful aphorism - but we can't take refuge in aphorisms. ~ Morton Feldman

Men can go to hell! I'll meet them there. ~ Ljupka Cvetanova

An aphorism is a personal observation inflated into a universal truth, a private posing as a general. ~ Stefan Kanfer

Our parents would not be 'The best parents in the world' (to us) if they were not our parents. ~ Mokokoma Mokhonoana

An aphorism needn't be true, but it should sound true. ~ Marty Rubin

The aphorism is already a shadow of itself. ~ Don Paterson

Every single living thing is food to at least one living thing. ~ Mokokoma Mokhonoana

Feminism? It might change society, but it will certainly not change the man. ~ Ljupka Cvetanova

A coward is a servant of his fears.
A hero enslaves his fears. ~ Lera Auerbach

What are the precise characteristics of an epigram it is not easy to define. It differs from a joke, in the fact that the wit of the latter dies in the words, and cannot therefore be conveyed in another language; while an epigram is a wit of ideas, and hence, is translatable. Like aphorisms, songs and sonnets, it is occupied with some single point, small and manageable; but whilst a song conveys a sentiment, a sonnet a poetical, and an aphorism a moral reflection, an epigram expresses a contrast. ~ William Matthews

An aphorism is the last link in a long chain of thought. ~ Marie Von Ebner-Eschenbach

You cannot force someone to believe something they do not believe; you can only manage to force them to speak or act as if they do. ~ Mokokoma Mokhonoana

If we couldn't laugh at ourselves, that would be the end of everything. ~ Niels Bohr

You have the chance to remain silent. Everything you say will be misused. ~ Ljupka Cvetanova

An aphorism that does not score is just one more sentence. ~ Mason Cooley

You don't have to be a prince to love the princess. ~ Ljupka Cvetanova

There is music you never hear unless you play it yourself. ~ Marty Rubin

The business of wretches is wretched even in guarantee giving. ~ Homer

Don't argue with a smart person. He won't drag you up to his level. ~ Ljupka Cvetanova

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. ~ F. E. Smith, 1st Earl Of Birkenhead

The interest in Wisdom is fading. Soon there will not be enough left to support the aphorism, even though it tries to amuse by half-mocking the Wisdom it propounds. ~ Mason Cooley

It's easy to write the history. All the eyewitnesses are dead. ~ Ljupka Cvetanova

A good night's sleep counts healthy sheep. ~ Brian Spellman

Every woman is beautiful, but not every woman has someone to tell her that. ~ Ljupka Cvetanova

Hindoo wisdom long ago regarded the world as the dream of Brahma. Must we hold with Fichte that it is the individual dream of each individual ego? Every fool would then be a cosmogonic poet producing the firework of the universe under the dome of the infinite. ~ Henri Frederic Amiel

The aphorism is a slippery plaything. ~ Mason Cooley

1. The cheerful horrors of inner reality amaze to the depths of the soul with the shock humor of evil. It's as if they are beating a shocker from whom you are laughing.
2. Laughter is an orgasm of awareness.
3. Science and art is a toy store. Created in order to occupy a person with something.
6. Loneliness is a catcher of erotic dreams.
7. Aphorism as a tattoo sticker in the mind.
8. You take off the mask of hypocrisy, and there are hundreds of billions of laughing monsters of monsters. They laugh in a smile of hatred; an ordinary person simply cannot stand so much awareness.
9. The idea appeared in a mirror maze and it is reflected in all the mirrors, that is, the opinion that the source cannot be found because it is hidden from your eyes. You see that opinion is a sect.
10. Laziness as an attraction a child's rocking machine is an illusion of movement. ~ Musin Almat Zhumabekovich

He has his head in the clouds. He must live in a skyscraper. ~ Ljupka Cvetanova

In search of myself, I have created myself. ~ Ljupka Cvetanova

Good places for aphorisms: in fortune cookies, on bumper stickers, and on banners flying over the Palace of Free Advice. ~ Mason Cooley

Most of my writing consists of an attempt to translate aphorisms into continuous prose. ~ Northrop Frye

A journal takes the place of a confidant, that is, of friend or wife; it becomes a substitute for production, a substitute for country and public. It is a grief-cheating device, a mode of escape and withdrawal; but, factotum as it is, though it takes the place of everything, properly speaking it represents nothing at all ... ~ Henri Frederic Amiel

My favorite times were spent in his backyard where he and his roommates had "let nature take its course," the weeds towering above our heads. We placed two chairs in the middle of that jungle and discussed what we didn't know we were discussing: What brings a writer and an engineer together? How can we reconcile our diverse interests into a pointed goal, a single aphorism on life? More simply stated: Why are we falling in love? ~ Megan Rich

No one can touch us. We are unbelievable. ~ Ljupka Cvetanova

Finally, to the theme of the respiratory chain, it is especially noteworthy that David Kellin's chemically simple view of the respiratory chain appears now to have been right all along–and he deserves great credit for having been so reluctant to become involved when the energy-rich chemical intermediates began to be so fashionable. This reminds me of the aphorism: 'The obscure we see eventually, the completely apparent takes longer'. ~ Peter D. Mitchell

A global awakening can not happen. We all live in different time zones. ~ Ljupka Cvetanova

Good advice is usually given by someone who was once a bad example. ~ Ljupka Cvetanova

Though you can live for as much as you like, but your longevity is stupidity if you were leading a worthless life. ~ Michael Bassey Johnson

I will never do this, says one, yet does it: I am resolved to do this, says another; but flags upon second Thoughts: Or does it, tho' awkwardly, for his Word's sake: As if it were worse to break his Word, than to do amiss in keeping it. ~ William Penn

There are honest politicians. They haven't won the elections yet. ~ Ljupka Cvetanova

There's nothing quite like turning the page. ~ Casey Carter

-Truly, freeing oneself in one's own mind is only the first step on a path of freedom.- ~ Mark Alberto Yoder Nunez

The kind of person took milk in his tea on one day and decided against it on the next. ~ Anne Enright

I watched you undress. Shame on you! ~ Ljupka Cvetanova

A man who wears a fragrant flower on his collar spreads a perfume wherever he goes. (141) ~ Prem Prakash

His boat sank. They were all on his side. ~ Ljupka Cvetanova

An independent newspaper? It is a newspaper that looks nothing like a newspaper. ~ Ljupka Cvetanova

The aphorism offers a momentary sense of mastery over some confusion or unhappiness. ~ Mason Cooley

It's easy to reach the top. You have to bow. ~ Ljupka Cvetanova

A voter always knows how much to vote for. ~ Ljupka Cvetanova

Don't draw the line before stupidity. It'll take it as a start. ~ Ljupka Cvetanova

The flame that burns Twice as bright burns half as long. ~ Lao-Tzu

Life sometimes confuses us by making us discover in someone we hate a quality or qualities we love. ~ Mokokoma Mokhonoana

Caesar of the 21st century : I came! I saw! I bought! ~ Ljupka Cvetanova

One can not come back from life. ~ Ljupka Cvetanova

The excellence of aphorisms consists not so much in the expression of some rare or abstruse sentiment, as in the comprehension of some useful truth in a few words. ~ Samuel Johnson

And the meek shall inherit the earth, ~ Geddy Lee

Stop looking for the key of happiness! One can not (un)lock happiness. Happiness is freedom. ~ Ljupka Cvetanova

We are not as important to most people as we are to ourselves. As a matter of fact, we are - to most people - not important at all. ~ Mokokoma Mokhonoana

The quoting of an aphorism, like the angry barking of a dog or the smell of overcooked broccoli, rarely indicates that something helpful is about to happen. ~ Lemony Snicket

The magic of fiction lies in deluding reason that it is fiction. ~ Róbert Gál

Politics knows no currency. ~ Ljupka Cvetanova

In literature, too, we admire prose in which a small and astutely arranged set of words has been constructed to carry a large consignment of ideas. 'We all have strength enough to bear the misfortunes of others,' writes La Rochefoucauld in an aphorism which transports us with an energy and exactitude comparable to that of Maillard bridge. The Swiss engineer reduces the number of supports just as the French writer compacts into a single line what lesser minds might have taken pages to express. We delight in complexity to which genius has lent an appearance of simplicity. (p 207) ~ Alain De Botton

A woman always has to prove her beauty. ~ Ljupka Cvetanova

First they came for the hackers. But I never did anything illegal with my computer, so I didn't speak up. Then they came for the pornographers. But I thought there was too much smut on the Internet anyway, so I didn't speak up. Then they came for the anonymous remailers. But a lot of nasty stuff gets sent from anon.penet.fi, so I didn't speak up. Then they came for the encryption users. But I could never figure out how to work PGP anyway, so I didn't speak up. Then they came for me. And by that time there was no one left to speak up. WIDELY COPIED INTERNET APHORISM, A PARAPHRASE OF PROTESTANT MINISTER MARTIN NIEMOLLER'S STATEMENT ABOUT LIFE IN NAZI GERMANY ~ David Brin

Many people know they're working, but not what they're working. ~ Ljupka Cvetanova

It's difficult to cross from one economic class to another. You'll drown in champaigne. ~ Ljupka Cvetanova

Never put off until tomorrow that which may be avoided entirely. ~ Bill McKean

A definition is the enclosing a wilderness of idea within a wall of words. ~ Samuel Butler

There is a celebrated aphorism insisting that the best way to live is to 'work like you don't need the money, dance like nobody is watching, and love like you've never been hurt.' ... After years of hearing and reading these lines I have decided to tell the truth: the original version is wrong. There is a grave error in the wording of this adage. The correct version should go as follows:
Love like you don't need the money,
Work like nobody is watching,
Dance like you've never been hurt.
See? Doesn't that make more sense? ~ Gina Barreca

It is a sign of arrogance to be mad at someone for not acting as per your advice, especially if it was unsolicited. ~ Mokokoma Mokhonoana

No one plows the field just by thinking about it. ~ Ljupka Cvetanova

She described how Camus's aphorism "One must imagine Sisyphus happy" helps her fight back against unproductive feelings of meaninglessness.
If we consider, like Camus, Sisyphus at the foot of his mountain, we can see that he is smiling. He is content in his task of defying the Gods, the journey more important than the goal. To achieve a beginning, a middle, an end, a meaning to the chaos of creation - that's more than any deity seems to manage: But it's what writers do. So I tidy the desk, even polish it up a bit, stick some flowers in a vase and start.
As I begin a novel I remind myself as ever of Camus's admonition that the purpose of a writer is to keep civilization from destroying itself. And even while thinking, well, fat chance! I find courage, reach for the heights, and if the rock keeps rolling down again so it does. What the hell, start again. Rewrite. Be of good cheer. Smile on, Sisyphus! ~ Fay Weldon

Anyone who does not care of your business and reduce your underestimates He does not know the treasures inside you ~ Proverb

Aphorisms are not true or false, but pointed or flat. ~ Mason Cooley

I keep having the same experience and keep resisting it every time. I do not want to believe it although it is palpable: the great majority of people lacks an intellectual conscience. Indeed, it has often seemed to me as if anyone calling for an intellectual conscience were as lonely in the most densely populated cities as if he were in a desert. Everybody looks at you with strange eyes and goes right on handling his scales, calling this good and that evil. Nobody even blushes when you intimate that their weights are underweight; nor do people feel outraged; they merely laugh at your doubts. I mean: the great majority of people does not consider it contemptible to believe this or that and to live accordingly, without first having given themselves an account of the final and most certain reasons pro and con, and without even troubling themselves about such reasons afterward: the most gifted men and the noblest women still belong to this "great majority." But what is goodheartedness, refinement, or genius to me, when the person who has these virtues tolerates slack feelings in his faith and judgments and when he does not account the desire for certainty as his inmost craving and deepest distress - as that which separates the higher human beings from the lower.
Among some pious people I found a hatred of reason and was well disposed to them for that; for this at least betrayed their bad intellectual conscience. But to stand in the midst of this rerum concordia discors and o ~ Friedrich Nietzsche

My best definition of a nerd: someone who asks you to explain an aphorism ~ Nassim Nicholas Taleb

When truth is replaced by silence,the silence is a lie. ~ Yevgeny Yevtushenko

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. ~ Sam Waterston

We endeavor to stuff the universe into the gullet of an aphorism. ~ Paul Eldridge

A sutra is, so to speak, the bare thread of an exposition, the absolute minimum that is necessary to hold it together, unadorned by a single "bead" of elaboration. Only essential words are used. Often, there is no complete sentence-structure. There was a good reason for this method. Sutras were composed at a period when there were no books. The entire work had to be memorized, and so it had to be expressed as tersely as possible. Patanjali's Sutras, like all others, were intended to be expanded and explained. The ancient teachers would repeat an aphorism by heart and then proceed to amplify it with their own comments, for the benefit of their pupils. In some instances these comments, also, were memorized, transcribed at a later date, and thus preserved for us. ~ Swami Prabhavananda

I saw an injured black cat. God knows, who has crossed her path. ~ Ljupka Cvetanova

Even the wheel of fortune can run over you. ~ Ljupka Cvetanova

I don't spend money on books. I write them myself. ~ Ljupka Cvetanova

The unspoken rule of democracy : three stupid ones will always outvote two smart ones. ~ Ljupka Cvetanova