How to Use aphorism in a Sentence

aphorism

noun
  • Of the many lessons from the massive struggles of the 19th and 20th centuries, this aphorism nears the top of the list.
    Aron Ravin, National Review, 16 June 2021
  • This isn’t the exact sequence in which the aphorisms flowed.
    James Hamblin, The Atlantic, 9 June 2017
  • In a battle of aphorisms, the Need for Speed seems to be trumping Speed Kills.
    Jo Craven McGinty, WSJ, 16 Mar. 2018
  • What a lot of people don't know is that that's only half the aphorism.
    Sarah Vitak, Scientific American, 15 Mar. 2022
  • Doc Rivers popularized the aphorism that the NBA is a make-or-miss league.
    Christopher L. Gasper, BostonGlobe.com, 22 Mar. 2023
  • The oldest thought, the thought that for the first time felt no need to be presented as a story, took the form of aphorisms on hunting.
    Roberto Calasso, Harper's Magazine, 30 Mar. 2020
  • Just as the old aphorism predicted, March came in like a lion.
    Nestor Ramos, BostonGlobe.com, 12 Mar. 2018
  • If the aphorism is true that the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach, then Dave Terrazas believes the way to a student’s brain runs along the same route.
    San Antonio Express-News, 30 Mar. 2021
  • Leap and the net will appear - what a broad and unhelpful aphorism thrown in the face of single women in their 30s and 40s the world over, the play suggests.
    Wei-Huan Chen, Houston Chronicle, 15 Feb. 2018
  • Sondheim’s lyrics and Lapine’s book are full of dozens, maybe hundreds, more aphorisms where that one came from, of course.
    Chris Willman, Variety, 1 July 2023
  • There’s an old aphorism about writing that goes: Real writers write with the mind, not with the fingers.
    Ian Bogost, The Atlantic, 9 May 2016
  • For the most part, this was an aphorism earnestly accepted as a statement of good faith.
    Franklin Foer, The Atlantic, 10 Oct. 2019
  • The Italians have a classic aphorism: Se non è vero, è ben trovato.
    Christian Schneider, National Review, 21 Sep. 2023
  • Celebs have surely taken the aphorism to heart this summer.
    André-Naquian Wheeler, Vogue, 1 Sep. 2022
  • Not much, although there’s not an NFL agent who would disagree with the rising-tide-lifts-all-boats aphorism.
    Joseph Person, charlotteobserver, 24 June 2017
  • To adapt a famous aphorism, your freedom to spray forth a fog of disease particles ends at the tip of my nose.
    Ryan Cooper, TheWeek, 2 July 2020
  • There’s an aphorism in journalism (attributed to Jesse Lynch Williams) that when a dog bites a man, that’s not news.
    Kevin Fisher-Paulson, San Francisco Chronicle, 8 Mar. 2022
  • Ismay formulated that aphorism at the height of a new Cold War.
    Victor Davis Hanson, National Review, 5 July 2017
  • As an old tech-industry aphorism puts it, email is the cockroach of the internet.
    Ian Bogost, The Atlantic, 2 Aug. 2019
  • In a single letter, Walpole might wander from war to weddings to art and anecdote and aphorism.
    Catherine Ostler, WSJ, 15 Apr. 2022
  • This statement graces old books of aphorisms and is engraved on more than one public-school building.
    Scott Drylie, National Review, 7 Apr. 2023
  • The aphorism weighs heavily on those trained to study the behaviors and achievements of past cultures.
    Steve Helber, National Geographic, 29 June 2020
  • There are endless aphorisms about love and dating that get branded into our brains from a very young age.
    Maria Sherman, Glamour, 20 July 2017
  • Indeed, to spend a day with Fred Ernesti is akin to taking a post-graduate course in the classics with a dose of aphorisms for good measure.
    Thomas Farragher, BostonGlobe.com, 12 Mar. 2018
  • The value of her music doesn’t come down to whether her lyrics land like sacred mantras or quote-a-day calendar aphorisms.
    Chris Richards, Washington Post, 23 Jan. 2020
  • One of the things that happens in the aphorism is that the chalices are drained, which again raises the question of: who was supposed to drink it originally?
    Joe Fassler, The Atlantic, 18 Oct. 2016
  • The bulk of my inspiration comes directly from the aphorisms or meanings of the adinkra symbols.
    Kerane Marcellus, Essence, 14 Dec. 2023
  • And while your fireplace might be the prime spot to cozy up, hearth and home (to borrow an old aphorism) obviously go hand-in-hand as far as decor is concerned.
    Anna Fixsen, ELLE Decor, 9 Nov. 2022
  • Hirayama’s bond with Niko involves drolly abstract aphorisms but no questions about specifics, whether past, present, or future.
    Richard Brody, The New Yorker, 5 Feb. 2024
  • Pundits and politicians, supporters as well as critics, have encapsulated this problem with a clever aphorism: This is the bridge that divides.
    Gisela Salim-Peyer, The Atlantic, 11 Dec. 2023

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'aphorism.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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