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Aphorisms or "Universal Truths"

(157 entries, updated September, 2007)

This is one of the harder collections to describe. What is an aphorism exactly? In simplest terms it is oberservation about life, briefly told, that is true 'more often than not'. It may even be something that is always true, a 'universal' truth. Many aphorisms have that particular feeling of being a fact you can't get away from. A good example is Winston Churchill's statement that "Success is never final" - which, like many proverbs or maxims, both states a truth and gives a warning - one that contestants and combatants of all sorts should pay heed.

As I said, an aphorisms is usually brief or concise (perhaps even 'terse'). Somewhat wordier observations can be found in the Wisdom collection. Aphorisms also frequently 'clever' or humorous. For this reason, you might amusingly observe that it is not such a great leap from aphorism to sarcasm (although the road back might be a long one.


       --Steve

     - A -

  1. It is in the character of very few men to honor without envy a friend who has prospered.
       Aeschylus


  2. We often give our enemies the means of our own destruction.
       Aesop


  3. Beware lest you lose the substance by grasping at the shadow.
       Aesop


  4. If you don't have time to do it right you must have time to do it over.
       Anonymous


  5. You cannot teach a crab to walk straight.
       Aristophanes


  6. The least initial deviation from the truth is multiplied later a thousandfold.
       Aristotle


  7. Nature does nothing uselessly.
       Aristotle


  8. A great city is not to be confounded with a populous one.
       Aristotle


  9. Music washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life.
       Berthold Auerbach


    10.  - B -

  10. Nostalgia is a seductive liar.
       George W. Ball


  11. Memory is the greatest of artists, and effaces from your mind what is unnecessary.
        Maurice Baring


  12. Half the work that is done in the world is to make things appear what they are not.
       E.R. Beadle


  13. What is now proved was once only imagined.
       William Blake


  14. Glory is fleeting, but obscurity is forever.
       Napoleon Bonaparte


  15. What you really value is what you miss, not what you have.
       Jorge Luis Borges


  16. My riches consist not in the extent of my possessions, but in the fewness of my wants.
       J. Brotherton


  17. Health is the greatest gift, contentment the greatest wealth, faithfulness the best relationship.
       Buddha


  18. The course of true anything does not run smooth.
       Samuel Butler


    19.  - C -

  19. An angry man opens his mouth and shuts his eyes.
       Cato The Elder


  20. We live in a rainbow of Chaos.
       Paul Cezanne


  21. Most of the important things in the world have been accomplished by people who have kept on trying when there seemed to be no hope at all.
       Dale Carnegie


  22. In some cases, non-violence requires more militancy than violence.
       Cesar Chavez


  23. When a lot of remedies are suggested for a disease, that means it cannot be cured.
       Anton Chekhov


  24. The way to love anything is to realize that it might be lost.
      --G. K. Chesterton


  25. A closed mind is like a closed book: just a block of wood.
      --Chinese Proverb


  26. It is a curious thought, but it is only when you see people looking ridiculous that you realize just how much you love them.
      --Agatha Christie


  27. Success is never final.
       Winston Churchill


  28. Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak; courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen.
      --Winston Churchill


  29. By three methods we may learn wisdom: First, by reflection, which is noblest; Second, by imitation, which is easiest; and third by experience, which is the bitterest.
       Confucius


  30. When you know a thing, to hold that you know it; and when you do not know a thing, to allow that you do not know it--this is knowledge.
       Confucius


  31. Virtue is not left to stand alone. He who practices it will have neighbors.
       Confucius


  32. History is a vast early warning system.
       Norman Cousins


  33. A good book has no ending.
       R.D. Cumming


    34.  - D -

  34. Youth is a blunder; Manhood a struggle; Old Age a regret.
       Benjamin Disraeli


  35. There is an art of reading, as well as an art of thinking, and an art of writing.
       Isaac Disraeli


  36. Our deeds follow us, and what we have been makes us what we are.
       John Dykes


    37.  - E -

  37. The environment is everything that isn't me.
       Albert Einstein


  38. Imagination is a poor substitute for experience.
       Havelock Ellis


  39. The only reward of virtue is virtue; the only way to have a friend is to be one.
       Ralph Waldo Emerson


  40. So much of our time is preparation, so much is routine, and so much retrospect, that the path of each man's genius contracts itself to a very few hours.
       Ralph Waldo Emerson


  41. It is impossible for a man to be cheated by anyone but himself.
       Ralph Waldo Emerson


  42. He who has a thousand friends has not a friend to spare,
    And he who has one enemy will meet him everywhere.
       Ralph Waldo Emerson


  43. The education of the will is the object of our existence.
       Ralph Waldo Emerson


  44. Of all the things which wisdom provides to make us entirely happy, much the greatest is the possession of friendship.
       Epicurus


  45. Time will explain it all. He is a talker, and needs no questioning before he speaks.
       Euripides


    46.  - F -

  46. The man who removes a mountain begins by carrying away small stones.
       William Faulkner


  47. The voice is a second signature.
       R. I. Fitzhenry


  48. The purpose of education is to replace an empty mind with an open one.
       Malcom Forbes


  49. Dost thou love life? Then do not squander time, for that is the stuff life is made of.
       Benjamin Franklin


  50. Life's Tragedy is that we get old to soon and wise too late.
       Benjamin Franklin


  51. The simplest questions are the hardest to answer.
       Northrop Frye


    52.  - G -

  52. Yesterday is but today's memory, and tomorrow is today's dream.
       Kahlil Gibran


  53. Ever has it been that love knows not its own depth until the hour of separation.
       Kahlil Gibran, from The Prophet


  54. The impossible is often the untried.
       Jim Goodwin


    55.  - H -

  55. There is only one way to come into this world; there are too many ways to leave it.
       Donald Harington


  56. Man is a make-believe animal - he is never so truly himself as when he is acting a part.
       William Hazlitt


  57. All good work is done the way ants do things, Little by little.
       Lafcadio Hearn


  58. My aim is to put down on paper what I see and what I feel in the best and simplest way.
       Ernest Hemingway


  59. Nothing endures but change.
       Heraclitus


  60. You must lose a fly to catch a trout.
       George Herbert


  61. Hope is the poor man's bread.
       George Herbert


  62. Great deeds are usually wrought at great risk.
       Herodotus


  63. We know how to speak many falsehoods that resemble real things, but we know, when we will, how to speak true things.
       Hesiod


  64. Fame usually comes to those who are thinking about something else.
       Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.


  65. Hunger is not debatable.
       Harry Hopkins


  66. Multa ferunt anni venientes commoda secum, Multa recedentes adimiunt.
    (The years, as they come, bring many agreeable things with them; as they go, they take many away.)
       Horace, from Ars Poetica


  67. Brevis esse laboro, obscurus fio.
    (When I labor to be brief, I become obscure.)
       Horace, from Ars Poetica


  68. A good scare is worth more to a man than good advice.
       Edgar Watson Howe


    69.  - J -

  69. Deep experience is never peaceful.
       Henry James


  70. There is no more miserable human being than one in whom nothing is habitual but indecision.
       William James


  71. Luxury is more deadly than any foe.
       Juvenal


    72.  - K -

  72. From such crooked wood as that which man is made of, nothing straight can be fashioned.
       Immanuel Kant


  73. A proverb is no proverb to you till life has illustrated it.
       John Keats


  74. My father didn't tell me how to live; he lived, and let me watch him do it.
       Clarence Buddinton Kelland


  75. Words are, of course, the most powerful drug used by mankind.
       Rudyard Kipling


  76. Nothing is more sad than the death of an illusion.
       Arthur Koestler


  77. Often the search proves more profitable than the goal.
       E. L. Konigsburg


    78.  - L -

  78. There is a woman at the begining of all great things.
       Alphonse de Lamartine


  79. People, like nails, lose their effectiveness when they lose direction and begin to bend.
       Walter Savage Landor


  80. A journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step.
       Lao Tzu


  81. It is the Vague and Elusive.
  82. Meet it and you will not see its head.
  83. Follow it and you will not see its back.
       Lao Tzu


  84. One cannot collect all the beautiful shells on the beach.
       Anne Morrow Lindbergh


  85. It takes less time to do a thing right, than it does to explain why you did it wrong.
       Henry Wadsworth Longfellow


    86.  - M -

  86. Conceal a flaw, and the world will imagine the worst.
       Martial


  87. The only antidote to mental suffering is physical pain.
       Karl Marx


  88. It is better to fail in originality than to succeed in imitation.
       Herman Melville


  89. We live, not as we wish to, but as we can.
       Menander


  90. It is hard to believe that a man is telling the truth when you know that you would lie if you were in his place.
       H. L. Mencken


  91. That which seems the height of absurdity in one generation often becomes the height of wisdom in the next.
       John Stuart Mill


  92. You don't understand anything until you learn it more than one way.
       Marvin Minsky


  93. How glorious it is -- and also how painful -- to be an exception.
       Alfred de Musset


    94.  - N -

  94. If you don't want to work, you have to work to earn enough money so that you won't have to work.
       Ogden Nash


  95. No one lies so boldly as the man who is indignant.
       Friederich Nietzsche


  96. There are no eternal facts, as there are no absolute truths.
       Friederich Nietzsche


  97. Some people will believe anything if you whisper it to them.
       Louis Nizer
  98. We are near waking when we dream we are dreaming.
       Friedrich Novalis


    99.  - P -

  99. What we obtain too cheap we esteem too little; it is dearness only that gives everything its value.
       Thomas Paine


  100. It is not good to be too free. It is not good to have everything one wants.
       Blaise Pascal


  101. In the field of observation, chance favors the prepared mind.
       Louis Pasteur


  102. Every luxury must be paid for, and everything is a luxury, starting with being in the world.
       Cesare Pavese


  103. The man who makes no mistakes does not usually make anything.
       Edward Phelps


  104. We always think every other man's job is easier than our own. The better he does it, the easier it looks.
       Eden Phillpotts


  105. The days that are still to come are the wisest witnesses.
       Pindar


  106. Not every truth is the better for showing its face undisguised; and often silence is the wisest thing for a man to heed.
       Pindar


  107. A catherdral, a wave of storm, a dancer's leap, never turn out to be as high as we had hoped.
       Marcel Proust


  108. Things don't change, but by and by our wishes change.
       Marcel Proust


    109.  - Q -

  109. However gradual the course of history, there must always be the day, even an hour and minute, when some significant action is performed for the first or last time.
        Peter Quennell


    110.  - R -

  110. It is not easy to find happiness in ourselves, and it is not possible to find it elsewhere.
       Agnes Repplier


  111. Nothing sways the stupid more than arguments they can't understand.
       Cardinal de Retz


  112. Every man has a rainy corner of his life whence comes foul weather which follows him.
       Jean Paul Richter


  113. We are never so happy or unhappy as we imagine.
       Francois duc la Rochefoucauld


  114. Not all those who know their minds know their hearts as well.
       Francois duc la Rochefoucauld


  115. Humor is, I think, the subtlest and chanciest of literary forms. It is surely not accidental that there are a thousand novelists, essayists, poets or journalists for each humorist. It is a long, long time between James Thurbers
       Leo Rosten


  116. Humor is the affectionate communication of insight.
       Leo Rosten


  117. Satire is focused bitterness.
       Leo Rosten


  118. Every writer is a narcissist. This does not mean that he is vain; it only means that he is hopelessly self-absorbed.
       Leo Rosten


  119. The problem is not that there are problems. The problem is expecting otherwise and thinking that having problems is a problem.
       Theodore Rubin


    120.  - S -

  120. Life is not a spectacle or a feast; it is a predicament.
       George Santayana


  121. Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.
       George Santayana


  122. Fanatacism consists in redoubling your efforts when you have forgotten your aim.
       George Santayana


  123. Maturity consists in no longer being taken in by oneself.
       Kajetan von Schlaggenberg


  124. Everyone takes the limits of his own vision for the limits of the world.
       Arthur Schopenhauer


  125. Life is but a moment, death also is but another.
       Dr Robert Schuller


  126. The tendency of an event to occur varies inversely with one's preparation for it.
       David Searles


  127. All art is but immitation of nature.
       Seneca


  128. We are made wise not by the recollection of our past, but by the responsibility for our future.
       George Bernard Shaw


  129. Everything happens to everybody sooner or later if there is time enough.
       George Bernard Shaw


  130. A ship in harbour is safe, but that is not what ships are built for.
       William Shedd


  131. Men of ill judgement oft ignore the good
    That lies within their hands, till they have lost it.
       Sophocles


  132. To him who is in fear everything rustles.
       Sophocles


  133. The mark of a good action is that it appears inevitable in retrospect.
       Robert Louis Stevenson


  134. Fortune is like glass--the brighter the glitter, the more easily broken.
       Publius Syrus


  135. Anyone can hold the helm when the sea is calm.
       Publius Syrus


    136.  - T -

  136. The mountain remains unmoved at seeming defeat by the mist.
       Rabindranath Tagore


  137. Beauty, more than bitterness
    Makes the heart break.
       Sara Teasdale


  138. I am a part of all that I have seen.
       Alfred Lord Tennyson


  139. There is nothing so easy but that it becomes difficult when you do it reluctantly.
       Terence


  140. Nothing is said that has not been said before.
      --Terence (185-159 B.C.)


  141. Only he is successful in his business who makes that pursuit which affords him the highest pleasure sustain him.
       Henry David Thoreau


  142. If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put the foundations under them.
       Henry David Thoreau


  143. There is no safety in numbers, or in anything else.
      --James Thurber


  144. Change is the process by which the future invades our lives.
      --Alvin Toffler


  145. Not all who wander are lost.
      --J.R.R. Tolkien


  146. Intense feeling too often obscures the truth.
       Harry Truman


    147.  - V -

  147. Long years must pass before the truths we have made for ourselves become our very flesh.
       Paul Valery


  148. In love, as in war, a fortress that parleys is half taken.
       Margaret of Valois


  149. Death twitches my ear. 'Live,' he says, 'I am coming.'
      --Virgil


    150.  - W -

  150. Being on the tightrope is living; everything else is waiting.
      --Karl Wallenda


  151. One is never more on trial than in the moment of excessive good fortune.
       Lew Wallace


  152. And from the discontent of one man
    The world's best progress springs.
       Ella Wheeler Wilcox


  153. Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask and he will tell the truth.
       Oscar Wilde


  154. There is luxury in self-reproach. When we blame ourselves, we feel no one else has a right to blame us.
       Oscar Wilde


    155.  - Y -

  155. Surrounding yourself with dwarfs does not make you a giant.
       Yiddish Proverb


  156. There is no god like one's stomach: We must sacrifice to it every day.
       Yoruba Saying


    157.  - Z -

  157. There is more stupidity around than hydrogen, and it has a longer shelf life.
       Frank Zappa



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