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Aphorism

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Aphorism (From the Greek αφοριζειν, to define), literally a distinction or a definition (See the Online Etymology Dictionary entry), is a term used to describe a principle expressed tersely in a few telling words or any general truth conveyed in a short and pithy sentence, in such a way that when once heard it is unlikely to pass from the memory.

Specifically, an aphorism is a statement which defines a perspective by illustrating or describing the horizon of that perspective. Instead of standing outside a viewpoint and describing the viewpoint, an aphorism adopts a viewpoint and identifies the things which are only visible from that perspective. Usually an aphorism is a very concise statement of a phenomenology.

Some examples are:

Marry in haste: Repent at leisure. -- Scottish proverb
Better to light a candle than to curse the darkness. - Chinese Proverb, often misattributed to Eleanor Roosevelt
Lost time is never found again. -- Benjamin Franklin
People who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones. Anon
Greed is a permanent slavery. -- Ali
"Death with dignity is better than life with humiliation."' -- Husayn ibn Ali

It can embody a bit of humor or be tied to some overworked statement, such as:

One man's meat is another man's poison.

The name was first used in the Aphorisms of Hippocrates, a long series of propositions concerning the symptoms and diagnosis of disease and the art of healing and medicine. The term came to be applied later to other sententious statements of physical science, and later still to statements of all kinds of principles.

Care must be taken not to confound aphorisms with axioms. Aphorisms came into being as the result of experience, whereas axioms are self-evident truths, requiring no proof, and appertain to pure reason. Aphorisms have been especially used in dealing with subjects to which no methodical or scientific treatment was applied till late, such as art, agriculture, medicine, jurisprudence and politics.

The Aphorisms of Hippocrates form by far the most celebrated as well as the earliest collection of the kind, and it may be interesting to quote a few examples.

"Old men support abstinence well: people of a ripe age less well: Young folk badly, and children less well than all the rest, particularly those of them who are very lively."
"Those who are very fat by nature are more exposed to die suddenly than those who are thin."
"Those who eject foaming blood, eject it from the lung."
"When two illnesses arrive at the same time, the stronger silences the weaker."

The first aphorism, perhaps the best known of all, which serves as a kind of introduction to the book, runs as follows:--"Life is short, art is long, opportunity fugitive, experimenting dangerous, reasoning difficult: it is necessary not only to do oneself what is right, but also to be seconded by the patient, by those who attend him, by external circumstances."

Another famous collection of aphorisms is that of the school of Salerno in Latin verse, in which Joannes de Meditano, one of the most celebrated doctors of the school of medicine of Salerno, has summed up the precepts of this school. The book was dedicated to a king of England. It is a disputed point as to which king, some authorities dating the publication as at 1066, others assigning a later date. The dedication gives the following excellent advice:

"Anglorum regi scribit schola tota Salernae.

Si vis incolumem, si vis te reddere sanum,

Curas tolle graves: irasci crede profanum:

Parce mero: coenato parum; non sit tibi vanum

Surgere post epulas: somnum fuge meridianum:

Ne mictum retine, nec comprime fortiter anum:

Haec bene si serves, tu longo tempore vives."

Another collection of aphorisms, also medical and also in Latin, is that of the Dutchman Hermann Boerhaave, published at Leiden in the year 1709; It gives a terse summary of the medical knowledge prevailing at the time, and is of great interest to the student of the history of medicine.

1 Aphorism and literature
2 Poetics of the aphorism
3 Aphorism and society
4 See also
5 Aphorists
6 References
7 External links

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Aphorism and literature

Aphoristic collections, sometimes known as wisdom literature, have a prominent place in the canons of several ancient societies: E.g. the Biblical Book of Proverbs, Islamic Hadith, Hesiod's Works and Days, or Epictetus' Handbook. Aphoristic collections also make up an important part of the work of some modern authors, such as Friedrich Nietzsche, Karl Kraus, Leonid Sukhorukov, Thomas Szasz and Leonard Wisdon.

Some writers such as Eric Hoffer employ a style of compressing ideas and thoughts into brief paragraphs, many one sentence long, and refer to these as aphorisms. See the page on Eric Hoffer for selected examples.

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Poetics of the aphorism

Some sociolinguists consider the aphorism a compressed poetic genre in itself. Aphorisms typically make extensive use of such devices as alliteration ("penny wise, pound foolish"), anaphora ("a penny saved is a penny earned") and rhyme ("a stitch in time saves nine").

Consider, for example, the aphorism "Children should be seen and not heard", which has persisted in common usage despite many compelling objections to its wisdom. Whatever the value of its message, the phrase is, in fact, considered a masterpiece of oral-poetic art.

"Children should be seen and not heard" contains emphatic repetition of the consonants n and d ("Children should be seen and not heard"). Metrically, it consists of four syllables without strong rhythmical marking ("Children should be") followed by a pronounced choriamb ("SEEN and not HEARD"). It is thus remarkably similar to octosyllabic verse-forms found in many ancient literatures, including Sappho's lyrics and the hymns of the Rig-Veda.

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Aphorism and society

In a number of cultures, such as Samuel Johnson's England and tribal societies throughout the world, the ability to spontaneously produce aphoristic sayings at exactly the right moment is a key determinant of social status.

Many societies have traditional sages or culture heroes to whom aphorisms are commonly attributed, such as the Seven Sages of Greece or King Solomon.

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