Aphorism   

[af-uh-riz-uhm]

noun

a terse saying embodying a general truth, or astute observation, as “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely” (Lord Acton).

Metaphors, similes & analogies

The ‘aphorisms’ pages include a collection of metaphors, similes and analogies found in my general research and reading of books and articles.

According to the old saying ‘a picture paints a thousand words‘. Metaphors, similes and analogies are ‘word pictures‘, and can describe situations, persons or things far better than the clever use of a few carefully chosen nouns, verbs and adjectives.

It may be prudent to describe the difference between metaphors, similes and analogies.

Metaphor – describes one thing by comparing it to another, unrelated thing. In other words, it uses one thing to mean another by comparing the two. For example, Shakespeare’s famous metaphor, ‘all the world’s a stage‘.

Simile – a simile is a type of metaphor, but uses words such as ‘like’, or ‘as’ to make the comparison. For example, ‘life is like a box of chocolates‘, ‘blind as a bat‘.

Analogy – describes something by comparing it to the similarity in something else. At it’s most basic, it is an extended simile or metaphor, but makes more of a logical argument regarding the similarity between the two objects. For example, ‘make like a tree and leave‘, ‘in is to out as up is to down‘, ‘he stuck to her like stink on a monkey‘.