Aphorism Quotes - Page 5

• 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

  Water, Mind, Hunters

  "Aphorisms". Book by F. H. Bradley, 1930.

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• 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

  Country, Ideas, Age

  Swami Vivekananda (2015). “Karma Yoga: The Yoga of Action”, p.31, Advaita Ashrama

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• Aphorisms are literature's hand luggage. Light and compact, they fit easily into the overhead compartment of your brain.

  James Geary

  Light, Hands, Brain

  James Geary (2011). “The World in a Phrase”, p.9, Bloomsbury Publishing USA

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• The aphorism sometimes casts off cynicism and expresses strong feeling.

  Mason Cooley

  Strong, Feelings, Sometimes

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• I can prove at any time that my education tried to make another person out of me than the one I became. It is for the harm, therefore, that my educators could have done me in accordance with their intentions that I reproach them; I demand from their hands the person I now am, and since they cannot give him to me, I make of my reproach and laughter a drumbeat sounding in the world beyond.

  Franz Kafka

  Education, Time, Laughter

  Franz Kafka (1965). “The Diaries of Franz Kafka”

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• An aphorism that does not score is just one more sentence.

  Mason Cooley

  Doe, Score, Sentences

  "City Aphorisms, Thirteenth Selection". Book by Mason Cooley, 1994.

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

  Mason Cooley

  Advice, Flying, Fortune Cookie

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• An aphorism
  should be
  like a burr:
  sting,
  ...
  and leave
  a little soreness.

  Irving Layton

  Littles, Should, Soreness

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• Aphorisms should be peaks - and those who are addressed, tall and lofty. The air thin and pure, danger near, and the spirit full of gay sarcasm: these go well together.

  Friedrich Nietzsche

  Gay, Sarcasm, Air

  Friedrich Nietzsche (1977). “The Portable Nietzsche”, p.99, Penguin

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• If, even as the price to be paid for a fifth vote, I ever joined an opinion for the Court that began: 'The Constitution promises liberty to all within its reach, a liberty that includes certain specific rights that allow persons, within a lawful realm, to define and express their identity,' I would hide my head in a bag. The Supreme Court of the United States has descended from the disciplined legal reasoning of John Marshall and Joseph Story to the mystical aphorisms of the fortune cookie.

  Antonin Scalia

  Rights, Fortune Cookie, Gay Marriage

  "This Scalia Zinger Is the Funniest Footnote to Come Out of the Supreme Court This Term" by Shane Ferro, www.businessinsider.com. June 26, 2015.

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• An aphorism is not an aphorism unless you know what it means.

  Winston Churchill

  Mean, Knows

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• An aphorism is a synthesis of poetry and prose, it is a narrative precipitate, a didactic parable, an ideological concept, in practice it 's compressed and zipped philosophy . It is literature that adapts itself to the digital age.

  William C. Brown

  Philosophy, Practice, Age

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• The aphorism: a platitude that swerves, or slides all the way around.

  Mason Cooley

  Way, Slides, Swerve

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• The old aphorisms are basically sound. First impressions are lasting.

  Jessie Redmon Fauset

  First Impression, Sound, Firsts

  Jessie Redmon Fauset (2013). “Comedy: American Style”, p.93, Courier Corporation

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• There is so much poetry, and yet nothing is more rare than a poetic work. This is what the masses make out of poetical sketches, studies, aphorisms, trends, ruins, and raw material.

  Karl Wilhelm Friedrich Schlegel

  Poetry, Raw Materials, Trends

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• An aphorism is true where it has fixed the impression of a genuine experience.

  F. H. Bradley

  Genuine, Fixed, Impression

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• A man of fashion never has recourse to proverbs, and vulgar aphorisms; uses neither favourite words nor hard words, but takes great care to speak very correctly and grammatically, and to pronounce properly; that is, according to the usage of the best companies.

  Lord Chesterfield

  Fashion, Men, Use

  Lord Chesterfield, David Roberts (2008). “Lord Chesterfield's Letters”, p.163, Oxford University Press

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• 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

  Practice, Stupidity, Intuition

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• I compose most of my tweets with care, as if they were aphorisms - they are not usually dashed-off. Sometimes I'm surprised by the high, poetic quality of Twitter - it lends itself to a surreal sort of self-expression.

  Joyce Carol Oates

  Self, Expression, Quality

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• We often feel that a clever aphorism captures a truth that would require pages to defend in any other way.

  Steven Pinker

  Clever, Pages, Way

  Steven Pinker (2009). “How the Mind Works”, p.549, W. W. Norton & Company

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• 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

  Witty, Opposites, Long

  Umberto Eco (2005). “On Literature”, p.81, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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• 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

  Spiritual, Exercise, Emotional

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• My premise is that the popular aphorism that 'all religions are fundamentally the same and only superficially different' simply is not true. It is more correct to say that all religions are, at best, superficially similar but fundamentally different.

  Ravi Zacharias

  Different, Premises

  Ravi Zacharias (2010). “New Birth or Rebirth?: Jesus Talks with Krishna”, p.5, Multnomah

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• An aphorism is a generalization of sorts, and our present-day writers seem more at home with the particular.

  Anatole Broyard

  Home, Particular, Generalization

  "Wisdom of Aphorisms". New York Times, April 30, 1983.

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• The history of Western science confirms the aphorism that the great menace to progress is not ignorance but the illusion of knowledge.

  Daniel J. Boorstin

  Ignorance, Progress, Illusion

  Daniel J. Boorstin (2011). “Cleopatra's Nose: Essays on the Unexpected”, p.16, Vintage

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