Chamblee54

There was a post at this facility recently about aphorisms. As it turns out, there are a lot of expressions in english for a clever combination of words. A prominent one was epigram. No, this is not a message to Aunt Eppie, although it could be. (The “real” name of former advice columnist Ann Landers is Esther “Eppie” Friedman Lederer. She was the twin sister of Pauline Friedman Phillips, who dispensed advice under the handle Dear Abby.) The first non wikipedia result at google city for epigram was The Best Epigrams from Literature, Poetry, Politics, Science, Sports. It is a lengthy piece of work by Michael R. Burch. He says that aphorisms are a subset of epigrams… “Epigrams which convey truths or principles are called aphorisms.” Mr. Burch mentions other names for clever sayings: adage, anecdote, aphorism, apophthegm, axiom, bon mot, boondoggle, bromide, buffoonery, catchphrase, cliche, chestnut, chiasmus, dictum, doggerel, encomium, epigram, epitaph, epithet, etcetera, folk wisdom, formula, gag, gnome, ha-ha, hillbilly humor, homily, horseplay, hoodwink, jape, jest, joke, lark, leg-pulling, limerick, maxim, monkeyshine, moral, motto, mummery, one-liner, pithy saying, platitude, precept, proverb, quip, quirk, quote, raillery, rib, sally, saw, saying, short poems, snow job, spoonerism, tomfoolery, truism, vagary, waggery, whimsy, wisdom of the ages, witticisms, zingers. This page is a pretty good effort. There is at least one mistake, and it is a doozie. He credits the phrase “take my wife, please” to Rodney Dangerfield. The owner of that catchphrase is Henny Youngman. While his effort to give Mr. Dangerfield some respect is appreciated, this is just plain wrong. If you are not prone to wisdom fatigue, this site is a good place to visit. Mr. Burch covers various types of epigrams, and gives numerous examples. He does dwell on some traditional heros of wordplay, such as Oscar Wilde, Dorothy Parker, Mark Twain, Will Rogers, and Yogi Berra (the only one of that crowd with a World Series ring.) He has a fine section with the racy title Epigrams about Epigrams. This will be part two of today’s story. Pictures are from The Library of Congress. These men were Union soldiers during the War Between the States … What is an epigram? A dwarfish whole; Its body brevity, and wit its soul. —Samuel Taylor Coleridge … Since brevity is the soul of wit, And tediousness the limbs and outward flourishes, I will be brief. —William Shakespeare … To write an epigram, cram. If you lack wit, scram! —Michael R. Burch … An aphorism can never be the whole truth; it is either a half-truth or a truth-and-a-half.—Karl Kraus … An epigram is a flashlight of a truth; a witticism, truth laughing at itself.—Minna Antrim … An epigram is only a wisecrack that’s played at Carnegie Hall.—Oscar Levant … Anyone can tell the truth, but only very few of us can make epigrams.—W. Somerset Maugham … Certain brief sentences are peerless in their ability to give one the feeling that nothing remains to be said.—Jean Rostand … Epigrams succeed where epics fail.—Persian Proverb … There are aphorisms that, like airplanes, stay up only while they are in motion.—Vladimir Nabokov … An aphorism ought to be entirely isolated from the surrounding world like a little work of art and complete in itself like a hedgehog.—Friedrich Schlegel … Exclusively of the abstract sciences, the largest and worthiest portion of our knowledge consists of aphorisms: and the greatest and best of men is but an aphorism.—Samuel Taylor Coleridge … In the mountains the shortest route is from peak to peak, but for that you must have long legs. Aphorisms should be peaks: and those to whom they are spoken should be big and tall of stature.—Friedrich Nietzsche … It is the nature of aphoristic thinking to be always in a state of concluding; a bid to have the final word is inherent in all powerful phrase-making.—Susan Sontag … Most maxim-mongers have preferred the prettiness to the justness of a thought, and the turn to the truth; but I have refused myself to everything that my own experience did not justify and confirm.—Lord Chesterfield … Aphorisms … are the forms of ”eternity”; my ambition is to say in ten sentences what everyone else says in a book.—Friedrich Nietzsche … Our live experiences, fixed in aphorisms, stiffen into cold epigrams. Our heart’s blood, as we write it, turns to mere dull ink.—Francis H. Bradley … If, with the literate, I am, Impelled to try an epigram,  I never seek to take the credit;  We all assume that Oscar said it. — Dorothy Parker … Brevity is the soul of lingerie. —Dorothy Parker … Selah.