'A rose with a thousand petals' … what makes an aphorism – and is this a golden age?

Forget haikus, epigrams, proverbs, maxims, adages and riddles. If you're needing a sliver of wisdom, try an aphorism. There are certainly plenty around "

"Be the change you want to see in the world."
"Raise your words, not your voice. It is rain that grows flowers, not thunder."
"Winners are not those who never fail, but those who never quit."

Social media, these days, burgeons with such words of wisdom, floating around on a sea of hashtags, usually misattributed, and frequently accompanied by photos of sunsets over beaches. So are we living in a golden age of aphorisms? They are, after all, well suited to a 280-character limit, and positively beg to be shared.