apophthegm

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

A great statesman is responsible for an apophthegm on that aspect of the topic which always deserves to be quoted in the same breath as Dr Johnson's familiar half-truth.

From Shakespeare and the Modern Stage with Other Essays by Lee, Sidney, Sir

Culture, criticism, in certain sterile natures, are like Sheridan's famous apophthegm: they lie "like lumps of marl on a barren moor, encumbering what it is not in their power to fertilise."

From Essays by Benson, Arthur Christopher

In Nietzsche's Beyond Good and Evil there is an apophthegm to the effect that, "Insanity in individuals is something rare—but in groups, parties, nations, and epochs it is the rule."

From A Poor Man's House by Reynolds, Stephen Sydney

To collect and arrange facts is, as he tells us, the sole secret of his success, and he adds in other words the famous apophthegm of Newton, “hypotheses non fingo.”

From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 8, Slice 4 "Diameter" to "Dinarchus" by Various

The perverseness of mankind makes it often mischievous 37in men of eminence to give way to merriment; the idle and the illiterate will long shelter themselves under this foolish apophthegm.

From The Works of Samuel Johnson, LL.D. in Nine Volumes Volume the Eighth: The Lives of the Poets, Volume II by Johnson, Samuel