Apothegms form a short cut to much knowledge.
Aphorisms are the true form of the universal philosophy.
The shortest follies are the best. [Fr., Les plus courtes folies sont les meilleures.]
Proverbs are the literature of reason, or the statements of absolute truth, without qualification. Like the sacred books of each nation, they are the sanctuary of its intuitions.
Maxims are sharp-edged half-truths.
Sensible men show their sense by saying much in few words. If noble actions are the substance of life, good sayings are its ornament and guide.
Someone who can write aphorisms should not fritter away his time in essays.
Spartans, stoics, heroes, saints and gods use short and positive speech.
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.
I fancy mankind may come, in time, to write all aphoristically.
In such a case the writer is apt to have recourse to epigrams. Somewhere in this world there is an epigram for every dilemma.
The shortest follies are the best.
