S. Austin Allibone, comp. Prose Quotations from Socrates to
Macaulay. 1880. Nor do apophthegms only serve for ornament and
delight, but also for action and civil use, as being the edge
tools of speech, which cut and penetrate the knots of business
and affairs. 1 The first and most ancient inquirers into truth
were wont to throw their knowledge into aphorisms, or short,
scattered, unmethodical sentences. 2 Julius Cæsar did write a
collection of apophthegms, as appears in an epistle of Cicero.
It is a pity his book is lost, for I imagine they were collected
with judgment and choice. 3 We may magnify the apophthegms, or
reputed replies of wisdom, whereof many are to be seen in
Laertius and Lycosthenes. 4 Exclusively of the abstract
sciences, the largest and worthiest portion of our knowledge
consists of aphorisms, and the greatest and best of men is but
an aphorism. Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Every man who has seen the
world knows that nothing is so useless as a general maxim. If it
be very moral and very true, it