LifeOS
Research

Aphorisms

Curated aphorism collection with CRUD — content-based matching, themed search, thinker research, DB maintenance.

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Workflows
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Tools
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References
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Triggers

The Problem

Ask a generic AI for a quote and it gives you the same ten Marcus Aurelius lines everyone has seen. It has no memory of what you've used before, no sense of which thinkers align with your actual philosophy, and no way to match a quote to the specific tone or theme of what you're writing. You end up cycling through the same tired attributions or spending time hunting through Goodreads yourself.

How This Skill Approaches It

The skill maintains a curated database at ~/.claude/skills/aphorisms/Database/aphorisms.md organized by author, theme, context, and usage history. FindAphorism analyzes the content you're writing — extracting key themes and tone — then searches the database for thematic matches while checking the usage log to avoid repetition. ResearchThinker goes deep on specific philosophers (Hitchens, Deutsch, Harris, Spinoza, Feynman) whose thinking aligns with the TELOS philosophy, extracts relevant quotes with source attribution, and adds them to the right section. AddAphorism structures new quotes with full metadata. SearchAphorisms lets you search by keyword, theme, or author when you know roughly what you want.

  • Quotes organized by author/theme/context/usage to prevent repetition
  • Themes: Stoicism, Wisdom, Truth-seeking, Excellence, Resilience, Curiosity
Not for creative writing or social posts

In Action

What you say to your DA, and what the Aphorisms skill actually does.

  • You say "find me an aphorism for this newsletter about why most people never finish what they start"
    Runs FindAphorism, extracts key themes (procrastination, commitment, follow-through), searches the database for matches, checks usage history to avoid repeats, and returns three to five options with the quote, author, and a sentence on why it fits.
  • You say "research Feynman quotes about doubt and scientific honesty"
    Runs ResearchThinker on Feynman, pulls quotes from his books and lectures focused on doubt, curiosity, and honest inquiry, adds them to the database with source attribution, and organizes them under the relevant theme categories.

Inside the Skill

The thinking, frameworks, and architecture that distinguish this skill from a generic version of the same task.

Database

Location: ~/.claude/skills/Aphorisms/Database/aphorisms.md

Organized by author, theme, context, and usage history. Per-aphorism metadata: full quote text, author attribution, theme tags, context/background, source reference. Sections: Initial Collection, per-thinker sections, Theme Index, Newsletter Usage History.

Taxonomy (curated state)

Themes: Work Ethic & Excellence · Resilience & Strength · Learning & Education · Stoicism & Control · Risk & Action · Wisdom & Truth.

TELOS-aligned thinkers (wisdom, rationality, truth-seeking, human flourishing):

  • Christopher Hitchens — intellectual honesty, skepticism, follow the evidence
  • David Deutsch — optimistic epistemology, knowledge creation, explanations over predictions
  • Sam Harris — scientific rationality applied to ethics, reason, mindfulness
  • Baruch Spinoza — ethics from reason, freedom through understanding, acceptance
  • Richard Feynman — curiosity, doubt as a tool, clarity, scientific honesty

Gotchas

  • Search by theme, not exact text. The collection is organized by conceptual themes, not keyword matching.
  • Always include attribution and source when adding new aphorisms. Unattributed quotes are useless.
  • Duplicate detection: Check if the aphorism already exists before adding. Same idea, different wording, still counts as duplicate.

Workflows & Routing · 4

Each workflow is one job the skill runs. The trigger phrases route your request to the right one — this is the skill's routing table.

  1. 01
    FindAphorism Workflows/FindAphorism.md

    Find aphorism, quote for newsletter, match aphorism, suggest quote, aphorism recommendation

  2. 02
    AddAphorism Workflows/AddAphorism.md

    Add quote, add aphorism, save quote, new aphorism, store quote

  3. 03
    ResearchThinker Workflows/ResearchThinker.md

    Research thinker, find quotes from, what did X say, thinker quotes on

  4. 04
    SearchAphorisms Workflows/SearchAphorisms.md

    Search aphorisms, find quotes on, quotes about, quotes matching, what aphorisms

How to Invoke

Say any of these to your DA and LifeOS activates the Aphorisms skill automatically:

  • "aphorism"
  • "quote"
  • "find a quote"
  • "research thinker"
  • "add aphorism"
  • "quote for newsletter"
  • "what did X say about"
  • "quote bank"

Or invoke explicitly:

Skill("Aphorisms")

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References & Credits

The thinkers, books, frameworks, and research this skill is built on. The ideas belong to them — the integration belongs to LifeOS.

Concept

Want LifeOS to do this for you?

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