Aphorisms are brief, often witty expressions that deliver concise memorable universal truths or principles. Brevity is key as is a matter-of-fact tone, although the message is profound and often surprising. While aphorisms can be topical they should stand the test of time, as The New Yorker writes: “The aphorism takes the form first of laughter and then of longevity and its confidential tone makes it candid, not cynical.” Not as easy as they look, then!
BITTER MEDICINE
Aphorisms date back to ancient Greece. The word was first used in the title of a text, Aphorisms by Hippocrates, which was a series of propositions concerning “the diagnosis of disease and the art of healing and medicine.” The first sentence of this work is, for example: “Life is short, art is long” — not very reassuring! Aphorisms evolved to apply to moral, literary and philosophical principles that in their own way have healing properties in their essential if sometimes uncomfortable truth.
VOLTAIRE
In his recent book A Theory of the Aphorism, scholar Andrew Hui suggests that the history of thought is driven not by grand systems but by the “fragments of thinking” offered by the aphorism. 18th century Enlightenment thinkers shared powerful ideas through the medium. Voltaire used them to annoy the French nobility, writing, “It is dangerous to be right in matters on which the established authorities are wrong.” Voltaire was banished and imprisoned for his incendiary wit, but after his death his words were to fuel the French Revolution.
HEDGEHOGS
German-speaking philosophers of the period brought gravitas to the aphorism. 18th-century philosopher Friedrich Schlegel decided that the ideal aphorism was like a woodland animal: “A fragment ought to be entirely isolated from the surrounding world like a little work of art and complete in itself like a hedgehog.” Satirist Georg Christoph Lichtenberg wrote scrap books’ full of them, proclaiming portentously: “The most dangerous of all falsehoods is a slightly distorted truth”, which is, of course, a danger of the aphorism itself. As the 19th-century Austrian aphorist Karl Kraus enigmatically wrote: “An aphorism can never be the whole truth; it is either a half-truth or a truth-and-a-half.”
SELF HELP
19th-century philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche used aphorisms more proactively to urge his fellow-men to embrace their passions. Among his Aphorisms on Love and Hate are many recognisable from popular culture: “Become who you are!” he insisted. “Be careful, lest in casting out your demon you exorcise the best thing in you!” Or the timelessly important reminder: “Most people are far too much occupied with themselves to be malicious”.
PESSIMISM
Polish writer Stanisław Jerzy Lec was one of the most influential aphorists of the latter 20th century. Darkly political, his aphorisms start hopefully then descend into pessimism. He set the tone for the modern aphorism with: “No snowflake in an avalanche ever feels responsible.” Or: “When smashing monuments, save the pedestals — they always come in handy.”