apothegm
\AP-uh-them\
noun
1. a short, pithy, instructive saying; a terse remark or aphorism.
Quotes
One need not go beyond the limits of the British Museum to be profoundly accomplished in all branches of science, art, and literature; only it would take a lifetime to exhaust it in any one department; but to see it as we did, and with no prospect of ever seeing it more at leisure, only impressed me with the truth of the old apothegm, "Life is short, and Art is long."
-- Nathaniel Hawthorne, "London, September 29, 1855," Passages from the English Note-Books, 1870
Origin
Apothegm stems from the Greek term apophthéngesthai meaning "to speak out." It entered English in the mid-1500s.
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