From Aphorisms Arise Truth, So From Truth Arise Aphorisms

By JAY PARINI

As Umberto Eco says in a lively essay on Oscar Wilde, published in On Literature (2004), "There is nothing more difficult to define than an aphorism." The word itself, he tells us, comes from the Greek, meaning "putting something aside as an offering." It is also an "oblation." To most people, it calls to mind...