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aphorism
(redirected from aphorist)

   Also found in: Dictionary/thesaurus, Wikipedia, Hutchinson 0.02 sec.
aphorism (ăf`ərĭz'əm), short, pithy statement of an evident truth concerned with life or nature; distinguished from the axiom because its truth is not capable of scientific demonstration. Hippocrates Hippocratic oath cannot be directly credited to him either, it undoubtedly represents his ideals and principles. The oath, which still governs the ethical conduct of physicians today, is often recited at the graduation ceremonies of medical schools.
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 was the first to use the term for his Aphorisms, briefly stated medical principles. Note his famous opening sentence: "Life is short, art is long, opportunity fleeting, experimenting dangerous, reasoning difficult."

aphorism

Terse formulation of any generally accepted truth or sentiment conveyed in a pithy, memorable statement. The term was first used in the Aphorisms of Hippocrates, a long series of propositions concerning disease and the art of healing. Aphorisms were used especially in dealing with subjects for which principles and methodology developed relatively late, including art, agriculture, medicine, jurisprudence, and politics, but in the modern era they have usually been vehicles of wit and pithy wisdom. Celebrated modern aphorists include Friedrich Nietzsche and Oscar Wilde.



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Like Walter Benjamin, she was entranced by multiplicity; and, like him, she was an aphorist at heart, honing pluralities down to terse sentences not without Jamesian evasions and excesses.
Chesterton And Evil by Mark Knight (Lecturer in the School of English and Modern Languages at the Roehampton University of Surrey, England) provides contemporary readers with an informed and informative analysis of the writings of poet, journalist, critic, biographer, novelist, aphorist, Gilbert Keith Chesterton with an especial focus upon Chesterton's attitudes with the problem of evil in contemporary society.
Still, Muggeridge certainly lacked Chesterton's capacity for the memorable phrase (Auden called GKC the greatest aphorist of the century).
 
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