The word aphorism (literally distinction or definition, from Greek: αφορισμός) denotes an original thought, spoken or written in a laconic and easily memorable form.[1]
The name was first used in the Aphorisms of Hippocrates. The term came to be applied later to other sententious statements of physical science and later still to statements of all kinds of philosophical, moral or literary principles.

The Aphorisms of Hippocrates were the earliest collection of the kind. They include such notable and often invoked phrases as:"Life is short, art is long, opportunity fugitive, experimenting dangerous, reasoning difficult: it is necessary not only to do oneself what is right, but also to be seconded by the patient, by those who attend him, by external circumstances."

The aphoristic genre developed together with literacy, and after the invention of printing aphorisms were collected and published in book form. The first noted published collection of aphorisms is "Adagia" by Erasmus of Rotterdam. Other important early aphorists were François de La Rochefoucauld and Blaise Pascal.

Two influential collections of aphorisms published in the 20th century were "The Uncombed Thoughts" by Stanislaw Jerzy Lec (in Polish), and "Itch of Wisdom" by Mikhail Turovsky (in Russian).