APHORISM. – More correctly *aforisma*, Gr. ἀφορισμος, “definition,” “maxim.” In medicine, under the name of *Aforismi* is understood, by excellence, the eponymous little work of Hippocrates of Cos, the greatest Greek physician of the 5th century B.C. It comprises 406 aphorisms, distributed in 7 sections, in which, in brief form and almost always admirably precise, the principles of medical etiology, semiotics, prognosis, and dietetics are summarized. Famous above all is the first aphorism that opens the collection: “Life is short, art long, opportunity fleeting, experiment perilous, judgment difficult.” This work, whose authenticity is almost universally accepted by modern philology, constituted for about two thousand years the most important text of the medical schools of Europe. From the 4th century B.C. onward, it was the subject of countless commentaries, among which the most important is that of Galen. The *Aphorisms* were translated into Hebrew, Syriac, Arabic, and Latin, and were repeatedly versified. In the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, the word *aforisma* was without doubt synonymous with the medical art. Modern science, despite the enormous distance that separates it from antiquity, considers Hippocrates’ *Aphorisms* as the masterpiece of Greek medical genius; and it still deems valid not a few principles and data that are found for the first time in that work.
In modern times, various works have borne the title of *aforisma*: the *Aphorisms* of Montecuccoli on the art of war (1670), the philosophical-ethical *Aphorisms* of Lichtenberg (1742–99), and the *Aphorisms on the Wisdom of Life* by Schopenhauer (q.v.).