Aphorism

An aphorism is a terse, often witty, statement about a general truth. An example of an aphorism is Benjamin Franklin’s "He who lives upon hope will die fasting"—a pithy statement delivering an insight into the human condition that may at first seem lightweight, even obvious. Still, it has a deceptively simple yet broad philosophical perspective. Used by Greek scientists to make clear their observations about the physical universe and then adapted by the era’s philosophers as a way to systematize codes of conduct (Aesop’s fables, for instance, each end with an aphorism to clarify the meaning of the story), the aphorism became a kind of wisdom literature in which writers sought to express the broadest truths (subjective to the writer) concisely to communicate with a broad audience.

Brief History

Aphorisms by Hippocrates (ca. 460–370 Before the Common Era) is generally credited as the first known use of the term "aphorism" and the source of the first known aphorism: "Life is short, Art long, Occasion sudden and dangerous, Experience deceitful, and Judgment difficult." Common aphorism topics include love and personal relationships; the power and beauty of nature; work and the responsibilities and rewards of earning a living and the value (or worthlessness) of certain lines of work; the rules of polite social behavior and conduct; the challenges of family; the concept of God and the meaning of the soul; the value of art; the dangers and blindness of pride; the appropriate role of government; and death and the implications of the awareness of mortality. Many writers have left legacies of aphorisms, handy sayings that have become part of a culture’s shorthand: the author/s of the Old Testament book of Proverbs; the Greek historian Hesiod; Francis Bacon; William Shakespeare; Erasmus; François de La Rochefoucauld (considered by many the premier aphorist); Jonathan Swift; Benjamin Franklin; Ralph Waldo Emerson; Mark Twain; and Oscar Wilde, to name but a few.

Websites dedicated to listing aphorisms quote writers as diverse as proto-absurdist Franz Kafkaand author Harper Lee, and from the classic storyteller Charles Dickens to the postmodern curmudgeon Kurt Vonnegut. Despite being part of a larger work, aphorisms are often used without reference to the original text—for instance, "’Tis love that makes the world go round" is a well-known saying from Dickens’s Our Mutual Friend (1864–65), a long and complex novel.

Whether found in novels or gathered in collections, aphorisms serve a common function. They illuminate aspects of the human experience and, in turn, give readers concise perspectives on potentially complicated subjects. For example, "to err is human, to forgive, divine," penned by British neoclassical satirist and essayist Alexander Pope (1688–1744), shows the deceptive power of aphoristic writing. It is so often quoted—although many do not know the source—that it has become a common saying throughout English-speaking cultures. It recommends a difficult code of conduct that can serve as a reminder when a person is most severely tested. Such is the work of aphorisms—they provide guidance, moral codes, and general truths that speak to the widest reach of humanity. They become memorable because of their carefully crafted balance, their pithiness, and their accessibility. Unlike philosophers or theologians, aphorists work their insights into concision. Although the wisdom of aphorisms is often difficult to practice ("Always tell the truth—that way you don’t have to remember what you said," Mark Twain), they have become a rich repository of how humanity should act and behave.

One of the most influential and most widely read books of the twentieth century, Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-tung (1964), is a collection of aphorisms attributed to Mao Zedong (1893–1976), the leader of China’s 1949 Communist revolution. Also known as Mao’s Little Red Book, the iconic collection had sold more than 800 million copies.

Topic Today

The practice of putting wisdom into tidy forms has been expressed in a wide range of contemporary media. For example, the aphorism is ideally suited to the fast-paced twenty-first-century lifestyle and has fit perfectly into the world of social media. From blogs to Facebook and X (formerly Twitter), social media has opened an entire generation to the challenge of writing necessarily concise insights into life experiences, from the grand (love and death) to the mundane (snarled traffic or bargain shopping).

Catchphrases and taglines from films, television, and contemporary music are simply contemporary iterations of the aphorism. Aphorisms are the power clichés of motivational speakers and self-help bestsellers. Talk show hosts regularly close their shows with concise summaries of what the audience was to have learned from the show, and political organizations and advertising firms use the aphoristic model to coin catchy slogans. Television programs (and films) regularly use voiceovers to offer retrospectively wise commentary on the action, most notably in the 1990s sitcom The Wonder Years. Benjamin Hoff’s best-selling The Tao of Pooh (1982) has inspired similar works offering fictional Taoist aphorisms by cartoon characters and others, and public service commercials and children’s programming offer advice, most often in rhyme, to get their points across quickly and clearly. Aphorisms continued to be integral to many television shows in the twenty-first century, including How I Met Your Mother (2005-2014) and Scrubs (2001-2010), whose voiceover narrations imparted wisdom and episodic life lessons. In 2008, Randy Pausch's speech was published as The Last Lecture, which presented reflections on the life of a professor with a terminal illness through aphorisms. Life advice was presented in aphorism form in Mark Manson’s 2016 book, The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck. These more modern examples of aphorisms retain the genre’s characteristics: wisdom shaped into simple, easy-to-remember sentences designed to change the way the reader thinks and lives.

Bibliography

"Aphorism." Poetry Foundation, www.poetryfoundation.org/education/glossary/aphorism. Accessed 12 Oct. 2024.

Fershleiser, Rachel, and Larry Smith. It All Changed in an Instant: More Six-Word Memoirs. New York: Harper, 2010.

Friedenberg, Jay. Aphorisms from A to Z: A User’s Guide to Life. New York: Golden Palace, 2012.

Geary, James. The World in a Phrase: A History of Aphorism. New York: Bloomsbury, 2006.

Gopnik, Adam. "The Art of Aphorism." The New Yorker, 15 July 2019, www.newyorker.com/magazine/2019/07/22/the-art-of-aphorism. Accessed 12 Oct. 2024.

Gross, John, editor. Oxford Book of Aphorisms. New York: Oxford UP, 2010.

Heckmann, Chris. "What is an Aphorism — Definition, Examples and Writing Tips." StudioBinder, 7 May 2023, www.studiobinder.com/blog/what-is-an-aphorism-definition. Accessed 12 Oct. 2024.

Hippocrates. Hippocrates. Edited by W. H. S. Jones. Vol. 6. Cambridge: Harvard UP, 1923–2012.

Hoff, Benjamin. The Tao of Pooh. 1983. New York: Penguin, 2012.

La Rochefoucauld, François de. Reflections; or Sentences and Moral Maxims. Translated by J. W. Willis Bund and J. Hain Friswell. New York: Caldwell, 1900.

Pritchard, Vyvyan. Open to Epiphanies: An Anthology of Commentary Verse and Aphorisms. Brighton: Alpha, 2011.