Aphorism Sayings and Quotes

Below you will find our collection of inspirational, wise, and humorous old aphorism quotes, aphorism sayings, and aphorism proverbs, collected over the years from a variety of sources.

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
We endeavor to stuff the universe into the gullet of an aphorism. Paul Eldridge
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
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
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
An aphorism is true where it has fixed the impression of a genuine experience Francis Herbert Bradley
Worrying is like paying a debt you don't owe. Mark Twain
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 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
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 old aphorisms are basically sound. First impressions are lasting. Jessie Redmon Fauset
We often feel that a clever aphorism captures a truth that would require pages to defend in any other way. Steven Pinker
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
There is nothing more difficult to define than an aphorism. Umberto Eco
The great writers of aphorisms read as if they had all known each other well. Elias Canetti
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
An aphorism is the last link in a long chain of thought. Marie Ebner-Eschenbach
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
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
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
It is a good thing for an uneducated man to read books of quotations. Winston Churchill
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
The trouble about man is twofold. He cannot learn truths which are too complicated; he forgets truths which are too simple. Rebecca West
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 may equivocate, but they must not wobble. Mason Cooley
Aphorisms are the true form of the universal philosophy. Karl Wilhelm Friedrich Schlegel
The aphorism, 'As a man thinketh in his heart, so he is, 'embraces the whole of man's being. It is so comprehensive that it reaches out to every condition and circumstance of life. James Allen
A man is literally what he thinks. His character is the sum of his thoughts. James Allen
Aphorisms are salted and not sugared almonds at reason's feast. Evar Esar
Aphorisms prick with the sharp point of truth, but with the sting removed. Evar Esar
Don't let go too soon, but don't hang on too long. Mitch Albom
If you would persuade, you must appeal to interest rather than intellect. Rick Kirschner
An aphorism is a brief expression of an important principle that you seek to employ in your pitch. Rick Kirschner
Civilization is a race between catastrophe and education. H.G. Wells
It ain't what you don't know that gets you into trouble. Mark Twain
You can take the boy out of the country, but you can't take the country out of the boy. F.Bunce
You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you can't fool all of the people all of the time. Abraham Lincoln
If you do what you've always done, you'll get what you've always got. Morris C. Katzoff
The race isn't always to the swift, nor the fight to the strong, but that's the way to bet. Damon Runyan
An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. James L. D'Adamo
All things come to those who wait. French Proverb
All things require skill but an appetite. George Latimer Apperson
When a person uses an aphorism, they are implicitly asserting the relevance of the image evoked to some given situation, and this assertion frequently implies some kind of judgement as to what kind of values are to be given prime consideration in this situation. State University of New York Press
Those who wish well towards their friends disdain to please them with words which are not true. Bharavi
Like a earthen pot, a bad man is easily broken, and cannot readily be restored to his former situational but a virtuous man, like a vase of gold, is broken with difficulty, and easily repaired. Hitopadesa