About

Still True? shows you one maxim at a time from nearly 2,000 sayings, aphorisms and definitions written between roughly 400 BC and 1911. You give each one a score out of ten for how well it holds up today, then see how everyone else scored it.

Every score feeds the Top 100. A maxim's position comes from its average, pulled towards the overall average until it has a few ratings, so one enthusiastic 10 can't put it at the top. Most divisive lists the maxims people disagree about most.

You don't need an account. Your scores are tied to a cookie on this device, so you won't be shown the same maxim twice until you've seen them all.

Where the texts come from

All of the texts are public-domain English editions from Project Gutenberg. They were split into single maxims, short ones were preferred, and passages that only make sense in context were left out. Translations keep their period wording.