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Read and get inspired by our carefully curated collection of aphorism quotes and sayings from famous philosophers and thinkers.
What is a famous aphorism?
An aphorism is a tactical approach used as an expression in writing to convey truthful statements about the world and individuals.
Aphorisms are concise and impactful statements that encapsulate deep truths or wisdom in just a few words.
One of the remarkable aspects of aphorisms is their ability to distill complex ideas into simple and memorable phrases that resonate with people across different cultures and generations.
The power of aphorisms lies in their ability to communicate profound insights straightforwardly.
Famous quotes such as ‘Know thyself’ or ‘Actions speak louder than words’ demonstrate how aphorisms can offer valuable lessons in a succinct format.
By encapsulating universal truths in a few words, aphorisms have the potential to spark contemplation and promote self-awareness, making them invaluable tools for personal growth and introspection.
We hope our handpicked famous aphorism quotes about life from great writers, poets, and authors make your day.
Best Aphorism Quotes and Sayings
We endeavor to stuff the universe into the gullet of an aphorism.
– Paul Eldridge
There are only two tragedies in life: one is not getting what one wants, and the other is getting it.
– Oscar Wilde
An aphorism is never exactly true; it is either a half-truth or one-and-a-half truths.
– Karl Kraus
Our live experiences, fixed in aphorisms, stiffen into cold epigrams. Our heart’s blood, as we write it, turns to mere dull ink.
– F. H. Bradley
Also Read: 100 Famous Philosophy Quotes To Increase Mental Strength
The hunter for aphorisms on human nature has to fish in muddy water, and he is even condemned to find much of his own mind.
– F. H. Bradley
An aphorism is an extreme synthesis of thesis and antithesis, theory and practice, it’s a mixture of intuition and observation, hypothesis and illusions of certainty and probability, history and stupidity.
– William C. Brown
An aphorism is true where it has fixed the impression of a genuine experience.
– Francis Herbert Bradley
Wise Aphorism Quotes About Life
The privilege of a lifetime is being who you are.
– Joseph Campbell
There are aphorisms that, like airplanes, stay up only while they are in motion.
– Vladimir Nabokov
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
Worrying is like paying a debt you don’t owe.
– Mark Twain
Also Read: 75 Savage Karma Quotes Sayings On Life And Betrayal
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
We often feel that a clever aphorism captures a truth that would require pages to defend in any other way.
– Steven Pinker
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
Truthful Aphorism Quotes
The old aphorisms are basically sound. First impressions are lasting.
– Jessie Redmon Fauset
The great writers of aphorisms read as if they had all known each other well.
– Elias Canetti
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
Also Read: 80 Powerful Inner Strength Quotes To Rekindle Self Worth
There is nothing more difficult to define than an aphorism.
– Umberto Eco
An aphorism is the last link in a long chain of thought.
– Marie Von Ebner-Eschenbach
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.
– Friedrich Nietzsche
The aphorism-that uneasy compromise between poetry and philosophy.
– Marty Rubin
Great Aphorism Quotes And Sayings
Aphorisms are portable wisdom, the quintessential extracts of thought and feeling.
– William Rounseville Alger
An aphorism is a single sentence that totally exhausts its subject.
– Robert Breault
The laughter of the aphorism is sometimes triumphant, but seldom carefree.
– Mason Cooley
Aphorisms are bad for novels. They stick in the reader’s teeth.
– Anatole Broyard
Also Read: 90 Positive Mindset Quotes For Work And Personal Growth
It is a good thing for an uneducated man to read books of quotations.
– Winston Churchill
Aphorisms are literature’s hand luggage. Light and compact, they fit easily into the overhead compartment of your brain.
– James Geary
An aphorism is a mental exercise, psychical, logical, linguistic, spiritual, ritual, emotional and rational, it is a major conceptual and literary activity, a mixture of prose and poetry that conveys, in addition to ideology, sympathy or antipathy.
– William C. Brown
Thoughtful Aphorism Quotes
The trouble about man is twofold. He cannot learn truths which are too complicated; he forgets truths which are too simple.
– Rebecca West
An aphorism is a personal observation inflated into a universal truth, a private posing as a general.
– Stefan Kanfer
An aphorism is a generalization of sorts, and our present-day writers seem more at home with the particular.
– Anatole Broyard
Also Read: 70 Powerful Stay Calm Quotes During Persistent Failures
Aphorisms may equivocate, but they must not wobble.
– Mason Cooley
It seems, in fact, as though the second half of a man`s life is made up of nothing, but the habits he has accumulated during the first half.
– Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoyevsky
It is the nature of aphoristic thinking to be always in a state of concluding; a bid to have the final word is inherent in all powerful phrase-making.
– Susan Sontag
Aphorisms are the true form of the universal philosophy.
– Karl Schlegel
We hope you enjoy reading our aphorisms quotes on life meaning from the greatest thinkers and philosophers.
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