Vladimir Nabokov
Novelist
"There are aphorisms that, like airplanes, stay up only while they are in motion."
Aphorism quotes
Aphorism
52 quotes on this topic — from poets, philosophers, and thinkers across history.
Karl Kraus
Playwright, Journalist
"Someone who can write aphorisms should not fritter away his time in essays."
Karl Kraus
Playwright, Journalist
"An aphorism is never exactly true; it is either a half-truth or one-and-a-half truths."
Friedrich Nietzsche
Philosopher, Writer
"A good aphorism is too hard for the tooth of time, and is not worn away by all the centuries, although it serves as food for every epoch."
Emile M. Cioran
Philosopher, Essayist
"The aphorism is cultivated only by those who have known fear in the midst of words, that fear of collapsing with all the words."
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Aphorism quotes (page 1 of 3)
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"Beyond Good and Evil, Aphorism 153"
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"We have oftener than once endeavoured to attach some meaning to that aphorism, vulgarly imputed to Shaftesbury, which however we can find nowhere in his works, that "ridicule is the test of truth.""
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"'Character," says Novalis, in one of his questionable aphorisms - character is destiny'."
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"Belief in form, but disbelief in content - that's what makes an aphorism charming."
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"One of the aphorisms occurred to me now and I wrote it under the picture: "Fate and temperament are two words for one and the same concept." That was clear to me now."
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"My best definition of a nerd: someone who asks you to explain an aphorism"
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"One cannot dictate an aphorism to a typist. It would take too long."
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"An aphorism is not an aphorism unless you know what it means."
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"What are your Axioms, and Categories, and Systems, and Aphorisms? Words, words.... Be not the slave of Words."
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"I have forgotten my umbrella."
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