The Futility Closet is a wonderful source of aphorisms of which my regular readers know I am particularly fond. Two more below ...
“Sleep is death enjoyed.” — Friedrich Hebbel
“Character is that which can do without success.” — Emerson
“Character is that which can do without success.” — Emerson
... which got me thinking "What exacly is an aphorism". Yes, I know how ro recognise one but I don't know how to define one. So off to Wikipedia and it tells me.
"An aphorism is an original thought, spoken or written in a laconic (concise) and memorable form.[1] Aphorism literally means a "distinction" or "definition", from Greek ἀφορισμός (aphorismós), which is from ἀπό (apo) and ὁρίζειν (horizein), meaning "from/to bound". The term was first used in the Aphorisms of Hippocrates. The oft-cited first sentence of this work (see Ars longa, vita brevis) is:
| "Life is short, art long, opportunity fleeting, experience deceptive, judgment difficult." |
No comments:
Post a Comment