Aphorism: The Long History of a Short Form

5/15/16.    "... La Rochefoucauld worked on his collection for years, revising it until each aphorism perfectly balanced deliberateness with casualness, self-evidence with counterintuitiveness, and impact with concision. The mark of a great mind, he wrote, was to “say many things with few words” (adding, “little minds use many words to say nothing”). With the Maxims the aphorism begins its move from philosophy to literature, where the beauty of expression is the only consolation for the ugliness of what is expressed..."

http://www.laphamsquarterly.org/roundtable/long-history-short-form