How to Use aphorism in a Sentence

aphorism

noun
  • Cruyff came up with many aphorisms over the course of his life.
    — James Horncastle, New York Times, 30 June 2026
  • Which brings us back to the twin aphorisms that began this piece.
    — George Pesansky, Fortune, 19 Sep. 2025
  • What a lot of people don't know is that that's only half the aphorism.
    — Sarah Vitak, Scientific American, 15 Mar. 2022
  • The perfect vague yet totally true aphorism to throw at any put-down.
    — Elizabeth Logan, Glamour, 31 Jan. 2025
  • There is an aphorism in football that goals win games, but defence wins titles.
    — James McNicholas, The Athletic, 28 Dec. 2024
  • For the most part, this was an aphorism earnestly accepted as a statement of good faith.
    — Franklin Foer, The Atlantic, 10 Oct. 2019
  • Just as the old aphorism predicted, March came in like a lion.
    — Nestor Ramos, BostonGlobe.com, 12 Mar. 2018
  • 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
  • This statement graces old books of aphorisms and is engraved on more than one public-school building.
    — Scott Drylie, National Review, 7 Apr. 2023
  • This one aphorism has made my life richer, deeper and more fulfilling.
    — Expert Panel®, Forbes, 20 Dec. 2022
  • Sports coaches and managers often use mantras and aphorisms meant to inspire.
    — John Hughes, Sun Sentinel, 10 Apr. 2024
  • As an old tech-industry aphorism puts it, email is the cockroach of the internet.
    — Ian Bogost, The Atlantic, 2 Aug. 2019
  • 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
  • Oscar Wilde remains the go-to source of aphorisms for Britons after a quick laugh.
    — Kevin Liptak, CNN Money, 28 Apr. 2026
  • 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
  • These missives from Kawakubo can read like aphorisms dispensed by a boardwalk fortuneteller.
    — Robin Givhan, Washington Post, 3 Mar. 2020
  • 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
  • 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
  • The aphorism weighs heavily on those trained to study the behaviors and achievements of past cultures.
    — Steve Helber, National Geographic, 29 June 2020
  • In a single letter, Walpole might wander from war to weddings to art and anecdote and aphorism.
    — Catherine Ostler, WSJ, 15 Apr. 2022
  • The books were silly, designed to entertain, but also filled with aphorisms that forced you to pause for a moment or two.
    — John Warner, Chicago Tribune, 22 Feb. 2025
  • Ismay formulated that aphorism at the height of a new Cold War.
    — Victor Davis Hanson, National Review, 5 July 2017
  • His ability to turn a line or two of slapstick aphorism into cut-crystal wisdom is up there with anyone.
    — Corey Seymour, Rolling Stone, 16 Feb. 2022
  • In a battle of aphorisms, the Need for Speed seems to be trumping Speed Kills.
    — Jo Craven McGinty, WSJ, 16 Mar. 2018
  • The bulk of my inspiration comes directly from the aphorisms or meanings of the adinkra symbols.
    — Kerane Marcellus, Essence, 14 Dec. 2023
  • Its brevity is the perfect length for an aphorism and little more (unless someone rattles off a sequence of tweets).
    — Teddy Wayne, New York Times, 11 June 2016
  • 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
  • Doc Rivers popularized the aphorism that the NBA is a make-or-miss league.
    — Christopher L. Gasper, BostonGlobe.com, 22 Mar. 2023
  • 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
  • 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

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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