TY - JOUR T1 - On aphorisms JF - British Journal of General Practice JO - Br J Gen Pract SP - 954 LP - 955 DO - 10.3399/bjgp09X473312 VL - 59 IS - 569 AU - Quentin Shaw Y1 - 2009/12/01 UR - http://bjgp.org/content/59/569/954.abstract N2 - ‘The art is long and life is short.’Here is a fundamental truth about the human condition. It can be quoted in reference to any field of human endeavour, and, if you want to appear particularly well educated, you can quote it in sonorous Latin: ars longa, vita brevis. As such it appeared as a graffito on the walls of ancient Rome, and recently, to a colleague's surprise, on a wall in East London.But I guess that not many people who quote, or scribble it, know that the Art in question is medicine, and that they are partially quoting the first aphorism of Hippocrates. Quoted in full, it becomes clear that not only is the art medicine, but specifically it is some sort of intervention medicine, perhaps bone-setting or surgery: ‘Life is short and the art long: the crisis fleeting: experience perilous and decision difficult. The physician must not only be prepared to do what is right himself, but also to make the patient, the attendants and externals cooperate.’1Most of us would recognise the sentiments: in one paragraph they sum up the challenges facing doctors. All the more astonishing then, that it was written 2300 years ago.An aphorism is a ‘short pithy saying expressing a general truth’. It is drawn from experience, and so the attribution is important: it matters who said it as well as what was said. But aphorisms evolve in oral transmission: they don't live on the page, they live in speech. They were particularly important in pre-literate societies where learning was transmitted orally rather than by text, and when writing arrived they were codified and written down as ‘wisdom-literature’. As they are copied and translated and spoken they mutate to remain fresh and sharp (note the … ER -