Creating & Using Aphorisms

An aphorism is a short, pointed statement expressing a truth, doctrine or precept.

Good aphoristic definitions of words allow you to experience feeling and imagination from the point of view of their originator.

They convey a meaning and a truth that dictionary definitions lack.

This exercise permits you to express and extend your own experiential quality and flavor to a word, and what it individualistically means to you.

For example:.

Marriage -- A lottery in which men stake their liberty and women their happiness.

-- Madame DiRieux.

One long conversation, checkered by disputes.

-- Robert Louis Stevenson.

Now create and write an aphorism for each of the following words:.

For example, Retirement is what men do when they die and women do when they marry.

Retirement Politics Reality Happiness.

Creativity Power Lov e Tidiness.

An epithet is a descriptive word or phrase that expresses some real or implied quality of a person or thing in place of the name (e.g.

"Charles the Great" for Charlemagne).

Create a catchy epithet for each of the following:.

Atlantis George Washington Columbus.

Aztec Empire Roman Empire Ronald Reagan.