Aphorist

🇺🇸Mark Twain

Literature

1835–1910

"There is nothing in the world like a persuasive speech to fuddle the mental apparatus and upset the convictions and debauch the emotions of an audience not practised in the tricks and delusions of oratory."

🇦🇹Ludwig Wittgenstein

Philosophy

analytic philosophy

1845–1925

"What is the case, the fact, is the existence of atomic facts."

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Literature

Age of Enlightenment

1749–1832

"Only mankind Can do the impossible: He can distinguish, He chooses and judges, He can give permanence To the moment."

🇦🇹Franz Kafka

Literature

Realism

1894–1924

"From the true antagonist illimitable courage is transmitted to you."

Seneca the Younger

Philosophy

Stoic

-4–65

"“New friends, however, will not be the same.” No, nor will you yourself remain the same; you change with every day and every hour."

🇫🇷Jean de La Bruyère

Philosophy

Classicism

1645–1696

"Most men make use of the first part of their life to render the last part miserable."

🇬🇧Elias Canetti

Literature

1905–1994

"When he has nothing to say, he lets words speak."

Seneca

Ethics

stoicism

-4–65

"Life is like a play: it's not the length, but the excellence of the acting that matters."

🇨🇴Nicolás Gómez Dávila

Philosophy

1913–1994

"Total freedom of expression does not compensate for lack of talent."

🇺🇸Ambrose Bierce

Literature

1842–1914

"Dictionary, n. A malevolent literary device for cramping the growth of a language and making it hard and inelastic. This dictionary, however, is a most useful work."

🇦🇷Antonio Porchia

Literature

1886–1968

"My God, I have almost never believed in you, and yet I have always loved you."

"The last thing I can believe is the illusion of consciousness."