aphorisms
APHORISM, n. Predigested wisdom.
The flabby wine-skin of his brain
Yields to some pathologic strain
And voids from its unstored abysm
The driblet of an aphorism
¨The Mad Philosopher,¨1697.
Ambroise Bierce in The Devil's Dictionary
* * *
Beliefs are what divide people. Doubt is what unites them.
Peter Ustinov
Common sense tells you that the earth is flat.
Steven E Landsburg
Inventions reached their limit a long time ago, and I see no hope for further development.
Sextus Julius Frontinus in the first century AD
adage, apothegm, axiom, dictum, maxim, moral, precept, proverb, rule, saying, truism, saw