Aphorism

An aphorism (from the Greek ἀφορίζειν, 'to define') is a sentence that tries to express an idea in a concise, coherent and apparently definitive way.

The aphorism is the shortest and most concise literary genre, as it is defined by its own structural characteristics and length. The aphorism tends to be short, while the essay or novel tends to be long. The aphorism delimits a thought in a precise way; and it is that precision that enhances your text. Although aphorism and poetry are closely related, this genre enjoys sufficient differentiation to be considered a markedly different genre.

Some works by classical Greek authors, such as Heraclitus of Ephesus, Aeschylus, Pindar, Hippocrates or Democritus contain thoughts or aphoristic maxims, to support their opinions, theories, demonstrations and philosophical, medical, scientific treatises, etc.

Like many other examples of proverbial elements, sociolinguistics scholars propose that the aphorism is a type of paremia, brother to the axiom, the maxim, the adage, and other brief formulations of thought, moralizing or judgmental (apothegms, proverbs, etc.)

The variety of authors who practiced the “art of aphorism” ranges from Madame de Sevigné to Simone Weil or María Zambrano, from Confucius and Georg Christoph Lichtenberg to Santiago Ramón y Cajal, from Benjamin Franklin to Émile Cioran, from Charles Baudelaire to Jorge Luis Borges, from Mark Twain to Oscar Wilde, from Pessoa to Antonio Machado, or from Plato to Albert Camus.

Although aphorism is an ancient literary genre, it adapts very well to the current internet environment, as well as to new technologies, which make it their own as if it were a modern genre. This makes us think that the aphoristic is a way of writing that will endure over time.