Epigram: 1.A vividly expressed truth that is so, or not, as the case may be. 2.A dash of wit and a jigger of wisdom, flavored with surprise. – Elbert Hubbard, The Roycroft Dictionary Concocted by Ali Baba and the Bunch on R

Aphorisms are essentially an aristocratic genre of writing. The aphorist does not argue or explain, he asserts; and implicit in his assertion is a conviction that he is wiser and more intelligent than his readers. – W. H. Auden

Then your words of abuse today may turn into a universally valid principle of denigration, for words are magical formulae. They leave fingermarks behind on the brain, which in the twinkling of an eye becomes the footprints of history. One ought to watch one’s every word. – Franz Kafka, quoted by Gustav Janouch, Conversations with Kafka

The profoundest thought or passion sleeps as in a mine, until an equal mind and heart finds and publishes it. – Ralph Waldo Emerson, “Quotation and Originality,” Letters and Social Aims, 1876