name: aphorisms
description: "Aphorism management. Store, retrieve, and reflect on quotes and sayings."
triggers:
- aphorism
- quote
- saying
- wisdom quote

Aphorisms Skill

Manage a personal collection of quotes, aphorisms, and wisdom sayings with full CRUD operations, tagging, and integration with the TELOS belief system.

Storage Format

Aphorisms are stored in memory/STATE/aphorisms.json as a JSON array. Each entry follows this schema:

{
  "id": "aph_20260302_001",
  "text": "We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.",
  "author": "Will Durant",
  "source": "The Story of Philosophy (1926)",
  "tags": ["excellence", "habits", "discipline"],
  "date_added": "2026-03-02",
  "telos_alignment": "purpose",
  "notes": "Often misattributed to Aristotle. Durant was summarizing Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics."
}

CRUD Operations

Add an Aphorism

User says: "Add this quote: 'The map is not the territory' by Alfred Korzybski"

Process:
1. Parse the text and author from the user input
2. Generate a unique ID based on today's date and next sequence number
3. Prompt for optional fields (source, tags) or infer them from content
4. Append to memory/STATE/aphorisms.json
5. Confirm with the formatted display

Search Aphorisms

Supported search modes:

Random Aphorism

User says: "Give me a random quote" or "daily wisdom"

Process:
1. Load the aphorisms array
2. Select one at random (or use date-seeded selection for "daily" to ensure consistency)
3. Display in the formatted output

Delete an Aphorism

User says: "Remove the aphorism about maps and territory"

Process:
1. Search for matching aphorism by keyword
2. Display the match and ask for confirmation
3. Remove from the JSON array on confirmation
4. Confirm deletion

TELOS Belief Integration

Aphorisms can be tagged with a TELOS alignment to connect wisdom to the user's personal belief framework:

Output Format

When displaying an aphorism:

---
"We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit."

  -- Will Durant, The Story of Philosophy (1926)
  Tags: #excellence #habits #discipline
  TELOS: purpose
---

When displaying search results (multiple):

Found 3 aphorisms matching "discipline":

1. "We are what we repeatedly do..." -- Will Durant [#excellence #habits #discipline]
2. "Discipline is the bridge between goals and accomplishment." -- Jim Rohn [#discipline #goals]
3. "No man is free who is not master of himself." -- Epictetus [#discipline #freedom #stoicism]

Batch Import

To import multiple aphorisms from a content source (book notes, article, etc.):

1. User provides raw text with quotes
2. Parse each quote, extracting text and author
3. Auto-generate tags using keyword extraction
4. Present the batch for review before saving
5. Append all confirmed entries to the JSON file

When to Use

• User asks to save, find, or display a quote or aphorism
• User asks for daily wisdom or a random quote
• User provides a list of quotes to store
• User wants quotes related to a TELOS belief or specific topic