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A Weekly Celebration of
Chiastic, Oxymoronic, & Paradoxical Quotations
This is the week of June 1, 2003 to June 7, 2003
THIS WEEK'S PUZZLER:
In her 1903 autobiography "The Story of My Life," this iconic
figure in American culture wrote:
"One of my Swiss ancestors was
the first teacher of the deaf in Zurich and
wrote a book on the subject of their education--
rather a singular coincidence; though it is true that there is
no king who has not had a slave among his ancestors,
and no slave who has not had a king among his."
Who is the author? (Answer below)
QUOTES IN HISTORY
(AND THE HISTORY BEHIND THE QUOTES)
On June 8, 1845, Andrew Jackson died at his family estate
(The Hermitage), near Nashville, Tennessee. A lawyer and
politician in the new state of Tennessee, he interrupted his
career to serve as an army general in the war of 1812.
Almost two centuries later, he is remembered in popular
history as the man who in 1815 routed the British in the
famous "Battle of New Orleans" (a feat commemorated in
the 1959 Number One hit song by Johnny Horton). Known
as "Old Hickory," Jackson became the 7th U. S. president in
1828, serving two terms. Before leaving office, he offered a
famous oxymoronic observations about the presidency:
"I can with truth say mine is
a situation of dignified slavery."
He also authored a famous example of "inadvertent
oxymoronica" when he issued a puzzling order in the Battle
of Mobile in 1815:
"Elevate those guns a little lower."
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
On June 9, 1891, Cole Porter was born in Peru, Indiana. The
grandson of a millionaire speculator, the young Porter was
raised in affluent circumstances. Exposed to the violin at
age six and the piano at age eight, he showed early musical
talent, writing an operetta in the style of Gilbert and Sullivan
at age ten and a published song at eleven. Before graduating
from Yale in 1913 he wrote over 300 songs, including the Yale
fight song, "Bulldog, Bulldog." He briefly studied at the Harvard
Law School before devoting his life to music. In 1919, even
though openly homosexual (a rarity at the time), he married a
wealthy American divorcee, and the two of them traveled and
partied together for the next two decades, sometimes living
together, sometimes apart. Porter became one of the most
popular lyricists in American musical history, with a string of hit
musical comedies (including "Kiss Me, Kate," "Can-Can," and
"High Society"), and some of the most admired songs ever
written (including "Night and Day," "Let's Do It,' and "I've Got
You Under My Skin"). The Song "All of You" from the 1954
musical "Silk Stockings" includes this chiastic lyric:
"For I've fallen for a certain lovely lass,
And it's not a passing fancy or a fancy pass."
In a 1929 Porter song called "The Tale of the Oyster," an
oyster emerges from the sea to spend an adventurous day in
American society. As he heads back home at the end of the
day he concludes:
"I've had a taste of society
And society has had a taste of me."
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
On June 10, 1940, Marcus Garvey died in London at age 52.
Born in Jamaica, Garvey attended school until age 14, after
which he was self-taught. After traveling around Central
America and living in London for two years, Garvey returned
to Jamaica in 1914, where he founded the Universal Negro
Improvement Association (UNIA). Failing to stimulate much
interest, he moved to New York City in 1916, establishing
branches of the UNIA in Harlem and other northern cities.
A charismatic leader who preached Black Pride long before
the concept was reinvented in the 1960s, he claimed a
membership of two million by 1919 (some even referred to
him as "The Black Moses"). His "Negro World" newspaper
preached Black economic independence, featured Black
heroes, and lauded African culture. In 1923, he was
convicted of mail fraud in connection with his Black Star
Steamship Line, which was created to stimulate maritime
trade between Black nations. After serving five years in
prison, he was deported to Jamaica. He moved to London
in 1934, where he lived in relative obscurity until his death.
Years earlier, when calling for an organization that would be
free of white domination, he said:
"Our leader will not be
a white man with a Black heart,
nor a Black man with a white heart,
but a Black man with a Black heart."
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
On June 11, 1572, Ben Jonson was born in London. After
trying his hand at bricklaying and soldiering, he became an
itinerant actor and playwright, producing his first play, "Every
Man in His Humour," at age 26 (the cast included a young
man named William Shakespeare). After some forgettable
early plays, Jonson went on to become the second most
important English dramatist after Shakespeare. Like the Bard
of Avon, Jonson also contributed many memorable lines to
posterity, including "Drink to me only with thine eyes" and
the famous line about Shakespeare, "He was not of an age
but for all time." In his principal prose work, "The Timber," he
recorded his notes and reflections on many topics, including
this intriguing chiastic thought:
"Men that talk of their own benefits
are not believed to talk of them
because they have done them,
but to have done them
because they might talk of them."
In his 1601 book "Cynthia's Revels," he penned a paradoxical
line about harmony:
"All concord's born of contraries."
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
On June 12, 1829, Johanna Spyri was born in Hirzel,
Switzerland. After marrying a Swiss lawyer, the young couple
moved to Zurich and Spyri began writing in her spare time.
A woman with great insight into the psychological world of
children, she produced some of the most endearing children's
books of all time, including the classic 1880 tale "Heidi." The
book contains a fascinating line:
"Oh, I wish that God had not
given me what I prayed for.
It was not so good as I thought."
Her remark fits nicely into a Grand Oxymoronic Theme we
have been exploring recently, a theme that might be called
"Be careful what you wish for, it might come true."
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
On June 13, 1752, Fanney Burney was born in Norfolk,
England. The daughter of composer and organist Charles
Burney, young Fanney received no formal education, but
educated herself through omnivorous reading and countless
in-depth conversations with David Garrick, Samuel Crisp,
Edmund Burke, and Richard Brinsley Sheridan, frequent
visitors to the Burney house. A shy and bookwormish child,
she was considered the least promising of the Burney
children. However, in 1778, at age 26, she published her
first novel "Evelina: The History of a Young Woman's
Entrance Into the World." It made a huge splash and she
quickly rose to literary prominence, becoming a member
of Dr. Samuel Johnson's esteemed literary circle. The
book contained this oxymoronic observation:
"Now I am ashamed of confessing
that I have nothing to confess."
Her next novel, the 1782 five-volume "Cecilia, or Memoirs
of an Heiress," included this chiastic observation:
"Misery seeks not man,
but man misery."
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
On June 14, 1936, G. K. (for Gilbert Keith) Chesterton died
in Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire, England. A charming,
witty man with a rotund figure, he was extremely popular in
London literary and social circles. His books on Dickens, Shaw,
Robert Browning, William Blake, and Robert Louis Stevenson
combined penetrating observations with sparkling wit, highly
unusual for critics of any age. Deeply interested in religion
and theology, he converted from Anglicanism to Roman
Catholicism in 1922, going on to write extensively on religious
themes. A writer of enormous range, Chesterton was also an
exceptional poet, a sparkling essayist, a novelist, and a very
successful mystery writer, with his popular series of "Father
Brown" mysteries. He penned remarkable chiastic sayings:
"The function of the imagination
is not to make strange things settled,
so much as to make settled things strange."
"An adventure is only
an inconvenience rightly considered.
An inconvenience is only
an adventure wrongly considered."
"Tradition does not mean
that the living are dead
but that the dead are alive."
He also authored some of the best examples of
oxymoronica ever written:
"A yawn is a silent shout."
"Silence is the unbearable repartee."
"It seems a pity that psychology should have
destroyed all our knowledge of human nature."
PUZZLER ANSWER: Helen Keller
DR. MARDY'S THOUGHTS OF THE WEEK:
"A chiastic rule for relationships:
Always listen respectfully
when loved ones are talking;
and always talk respectfully
when they are listening." (chi)
"We're closest to finding ourselves
just when we feel the most lost." (oxy-para)
Until next week,
Dr. Mardy Grothe
drmgrothe@chiasmus.com
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This message was launched into cyberspace to punpunpun@rogers.comDR. MARDY'S QUOTES OF THE WEEK -- April 6-12, 2003
A Weekly Celebration of
Chiastic, Oxymoronic, & Paradoxical Quotations
This is the week of April 6, 2003 to April 12, 2003
THIS WEEK'S CHIASTIC PUZZLER:
In recent weeks, a number of prominent people (including
Jim Lehrer of the Lehrer News Report) have quoted political
writer Michael Barone's memorable chiastic tribute about a
recently departed American politician:
"The nation's best thinker among politicians since Lincoln
and its best politician among thinkers since Jefferson."
Who was Barone describing? (Answer below)
QUOTES IN HISTORY
(AND THE HISTORY BEHIND THE QUOTES)
On April 6, 1992, Isaac Asimov died from kidney failure at
age 72. One of the most famous science-fiction writers in
history, Asimov was also one of the most prolific authors of
all time, writing between 400 and 500 books in his lifetime.
With books like the "Foundation" trilogy and "I, Robot," his
ideas greatly influenced the nature and direction of sci-fi
writing. During his career, his friendly rivalry with fellow
writer Arthur C. Clarke resulted in their famous "Treaty of
Park Avenue." In his 1995 book of letters, "Yours, Isaac
Asimov," he described the agreement:
"Arthur Clarke says that I am
first in science and second in science fiction
in accordance with an agreement
we have made. I say he is
first in science fiction and second in science."
He also demonstrated oxymoronic wit when he once said:
"I may not always be right,
but I'm never wrong."
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
On April 7, 1938, Edmund G. "Jerry" Brown, Jr. was born in
California. The son of Edmund G. "Pat" Brown, the popular
governor of California in the 1960s, the younger Brown also
became governor of California. Referred to as "Governor
Moonbeam" for his cerebral style and often zany ideas, he
attracted national attention for dating celebrities like
Linda Ronstadt. Currently serving as mayor of Oakland,
California, Brown became disenchanted with traditional
politics, especially the stranglehold that the Republican and
Democratic Parties had on the electoral process. At one
point, he used the device of "implied chiasmus" to describe
the two-party political situation he so vigorously opposed:
"The evil of two lessers."
During one of his political campaigns, he used a clever bit
of oxymoronic phrasing to describe his strategy:
"We're going to move left
and right at the same time."
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
On April 8, 1973, Pablo Picasso died in Mougins, France at
age 91. Born in Malaga, Spain in 1881, Picasso began to
show unusual artistic talent at age 10, when he formally
became a pupil of his father, also an artist. He became the
most famous artist in the world, his name becoming
synonymous with modern art in the 20th century. Picasso
had a verbal facility to match his artistic genius, once
defining art in a captivating oxymoronic way:
"Art is a lie that makes us realize the truth."
He once used a brilliant example of chiasmus to separate
the great painters from the not-so-great:
"There are painters who
transform the sun into a yellow spot,
but there are others who,
thanks to their art and intelligence,
transform a yellow spot into the sun."
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
On April 9, 1821, Charles Baudelaire was born in Paris. One
of the giants of French literature, he was an audacious
character who loved to do things for their shock value, like
dying his hair green and walking down the streets of Paris
with a pet lobster on a leash. When an interviewer once
asked him what his favorite word was, he replied with the
French word, "hemorroides." Under-appreciated during his
lifetime, Baudelaire is now regarded as an exceptional writer,
poet, and critic. He authored some of my very favorite
oxymoronic observations:
"The man who gets on best with women is the one
who knows best how to get on without
them."
"The cannon thunders . . .
limbs fly in all directions . . .
one can hear the groans of victims and
the howling of those performing the sacrifice . . .
it's Humanity in search of happiness."
He died a painful death at the age of 46 from a venereal
disease contracted from one of his many sweethearts,
making one of his most famous chiastic observations more
than a little ironic:
"A sweetheart is a bottle of wine;
a wife is a wine
bottle."
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
On April 10, 1931, Khalil Gibran died in New York City, at
age 48. Born in Lebanon, he spent most of his adolescent
and adult years in the U.S, but kept close ties to his native
land. In 1923 "The Prophet" catapulted Gibran to world
fame, becoming one of the best-selling books of all time.
A talented artist as well as a writer, Gibran's voluminous
writings in both English and Arabic reflected a deeply
religious and mystical nature. He showed a fondness for
oxymoronic and paradoxical phrasing:
"The obvious is that which is never seen
until someone expresses it simply."
"I have learned silence from the talkative,
toleration from the intolerant,
and kindness from the unkind."
He also enjoyed playing around with chiasmus. In a
powerful rhetorical question, he once asked:
"What shall I say of the man
who slaps me when I kiss him on the face
and who kisses my foot when I slap him?"
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
On April 11, 1967, Tom Stoppard's "Rosencrantz and
Guildenstern are Dead" premiered in New York City. It
became a huge hit, with long runs in London, New York,
and Tokyo. Stoppard was not surprised by the play's
success, having sensed its potential from the beginning.
After the play's first production, a friend asked, "Tom,
what's it about?" Stoppard thought for a second and
replied, "It's about to make me a rich man." The play
includes a clever oxymoronic question:
"Eternity is a terrible thought.
I mean, where's it going to end?"
"Rosencrantz" also includes this chiastic line:
"A Chinaman of the T'ang Dynasty--
and, by which definition, a philosopher--
dreamed he was a butterfly,
and from that moment he was never quite sure
that he was not a butterfly
dreaming it was a Chinese philosopher."
If this passage sounds familiar, don't be surprised. It was
inspired by one of the most potent chiastic observations
of all time, from the 3rd century B.C. Chinese sage known
as Chuang-tzu:
"Once upon a time, I dreamed I was a butterfly,
fluttering hither and thither. Suddenly I awakened,
and there I lay, myself again. Now I do not know
whether I was then a man dreaming I was a butterfly,
or whether I am now a butterfly dreaming I am a man."
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
On April 12, 1945, Franklin D. Roosevelt died of a massive
cerebral hemorrhage, at age 63. He died shortly after he
was inaugurated for his fourth presidential term and a month
before Germany's surrender at the end of WWII. One of the
most influential presidents in U. S. history, he was a voice of
hope during the Great Depression, a resolute figure during
WWII, and an architect of the modern American Presidency.
The 32nd U. S. President (serving from 1933-45), he was the
only one to be elected four times. In a 1940 speech at the
University of Pennsylvania, he said chiastically:
"We cannot always build the future for our youth,
but we can build our youth for the future."
And in a 1938 "Fireside Chat," he offered this chiastic
observation about how to protect and maintain liberty:
"The only sure bulwark of continuing liberty
is a government strong enough
to protect the interests of the people, and
a people strong enough and well enough informed
to maintain . . . control over its government."
PUZZLER ANSWER: Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan
DR. MARDY'S THOUGHTS OF THE WEEK:
"Never say 'Always' and
always be wary about saying 'Never.'" (chi)
"Many people would like to learn
how to swim without getting wet." (oxy-para)
Until next week,
Dr. Mardy Grothe
drmgrothe@chiasmus.com
--------------------------------------------------
DR. MARDY'S QUOTES OF THE WEEK -- March 2-8, 2003
A Weekly Celebration of
Chiastic, Oxymoronic, & Paradoxical Quotations
This is the week of March 2, 2003 to March 8, 2003
THIS WEEK'S OXYMORONIC PUZZLER:
In a famous oxymoronic line, William Shakespeare wrote:
"I must be cruel only to be kind."
In what play does the line appear? (Answer below)
QUOTES IN HISTORY
(AND THE HISTORY BEHIND THE QUOTES)
On March 2, 1797, Horace Walpole died in London at age 79.
Born to an upper-crust English family, he became one of 18th
century England's most well-known figures. With "The Castle
of Otranto," he helped establish a vogue for fanciful, wildly
romantic fiction. Today Walpole is best remembered for his
voluminous correspondence, which contains memorable
commentary on arts, culture, social issues, and the
personalities of his time. In a 1786 letter he found a chiastic
way of describing Sir Joshua Reynolds' tendency to boost
himself at the expense of others:
"All his own geese are swans,
as the swans of others are geese."
He hurled this oxymoronic zinger at the Irish-born English
writer Oliver Goldsmith:
"An inspired
idiot."
Walpole also had his critics. Lord Macaulay said of him:
"The conformation of his mind was such that
whatever was little seemed to him great,
and whatever was great seemed to him little."
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
On March 3, 1983, Arthur Koestler died by his own hand in
London, at age 77. Born in Budapest, Hungary, he studied
journalism at the University of Vienna, becoming a war
correspondent during the Spanish Civil War. His recorded his
break with Communism in the 1940 novel "Darkness at Noon,"
a powerful indictment of a system that sacrifices means to
ends. He became a British citizen in 1948. With books like
"The God That Failed," "The Act of Creation," and "The Ghost
in the Machine," he became one of the most penetrating
post-war thinkers. In his later years, Koestler suffered from
leukemia and Parkinson's disease. He and his wife Cynthia
were both believers in voluntary euthanasia and took their
own lives in 1983. Oxymoronic and paradoxical quotes
appear frequently in his writings:
"The more original a discovery,
the more obvious it seems afterward."
"The ultimate truth is
penultimately always a falsehood."
"Thou shalt not carry moderation unto excess."
In "The Ghost in the Machine," he revealed his humanistic
leanings with this clever bit of chiasmus:
"Behaviorism has substituted
for the erstwhile anthropomorphic view of the rat
a ratomorphic view of man."
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
On March 4, 1888, Bronson Alcott died at age 88 in Concord,
Massachusetts. The father of Louisa May Alcott, he was
perhaps the most innovative educator of his time. In his
career, he established a number of schools (the most famous
in Concord), all of which shunned the strict (and sometimes
harsh) educational methods that were common at the time.
Influenced by Socrates and the concept of dialogue, Alcott
advocated a courteous conversational approach that was
designed to not only stimulate thinking but, in his words, "to
awaken the soul." Finally settling in the congenial intellectual
community of Concord, his thinking both influenced and was
influenced by his friends and neighbors, including Emerson and
Thoreau. Alcott struggled financially most of his life, often
taking odd jobs as a handyman to support his family. In his
later years, he was enjoyed financial security as a result of
daughter Louisa's great literary success. In an 1841 article in
"The Dial," Alcott offered wise oxymoronic advice to educators:
"The true teacher defends his pupils
against his own personal influence."
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
On March 5, 1908, Rex Harrison was born in Huyton, Lancashire,
England. Harrison's interest in acting developed early in his life.
He joined the Liverpool Repertory theatre at age 16 and first
appeared on the London stage at age 21. After serving in the
Royal Air Force in WWII, his stage and film career took off, with
highly-praised roles in such films as "Blithe Spirit" (1945) and
"Anna and the King of Siam" (1946). His most famous role
began in 1956 when he played Prof. Henry Higgins (opposite
Julie Andrews as Eliza Doolittle) in Lerner and Lowe's "My Fair
Lady," a musical adaptation of Shaw's famous "Pygmalion" story.
The show was a spectacular success, running for over six years.
Harrison also starred in the film version (this time with Audrey
Hepburn as Eliza), winning an Oscar for his performance. Late
in his career, he observed oxymoronically:
"I'm now at the age where I've got to prove
that I'm just as good as I never was."
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
On March 6, 1806, Elizabeth Barrett Browning was born near
Durham, England. At age 15, she became seriously ill because
of a spinal injury, permanently affecting her health. At age 19,
she burst on the literary scene with "Essays on Mind and Other
Poems." She lived a reclusive life while writing passionate
poems on the social issues of the time, such as child labor and
slavery. In 1845, she received a telegram from the poet Robert
Browning, saying: "I love your verses with all my heart, dear
Miss Barrett. I do, as I say, love these books with all my
heart--and I love you too." They soon married secretly and
moved to Italy, allowing her to escape from her despotic father.
She is best remembered for "Love Sonnets from the Portuguese"
(Browning's pet name for her was "My Little Portuguese"). In a
memorable example of chiastic piggybacking, she once wrote:
"The Greeks said grandly in their tragic phrase,
'Let no one be called happy till his death;'
to which I would add,
'Let no one till his death, be called unhappy.'"
In one of her most famous poems, "Aurora Leigh" (1856), she
offered an oxymoronic line that captured the age-old notion
that "good" people can do some pretty nasty things:
"Now may the good God pardon all good men!"
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
On March 7, 1274, Thomas Aquinas died at age 48. At age
18, he joined the Dominican order against the opposition of
his powerful family (his brothers actually kidnapped him,
holding him prisoner in the family castle for nearly a year). A
man of enormous intellectual powers, he became the Catholic
Church's foremost philosopher and theologian. Aquinas was
not just huge in the history of the church, he was also just
plain huge. Charles van Doren wrote that Aquinas was so fat
that "a special altar was constructed for him, with a large
half-moon cut out of it, so that he could reach the Host with
his short arms while saying mass." Aquinas was canonized in
1323. In his "Summa Theologica," he wrote chaistically:
"Good can exist without evil,
whereas evil cannot exist without good."
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
On March 8, 1887, Henry Ward Beecher died at age 73 in
Brooklyn, New York. The son of a Connecticut preacher, he
became one of the most famous preachers of his time (he
also had a famous sister, Harriett Beecher Stow, the author
of "Uncle Tom's Cabin"). After graduating from Amherst
College, Beecher attended Lane Theological Seminary in
Cincinnati. In 1847 he was offered a pastorship at the
Plymouth Church in Brooklyn. An extraordinary speaker, he
took New York City by storm, drawing weekly crowds of up
to 2,500 people, all eager to hear his impassioned sermons
opposed to slavery and in support of women's suffrage and
the newly-formulated evolutionary theory. Because of his
progressive beliefs, Beecher was also one of the most
controversial figures of his day. One Sunday morning, he
arrived at church to find a envelope in his mailbox. A letter
within contained one word: "Fool." In his sermon later that
morning, Beecher told the congregation about the incident
and offered this clever chiastic assessment:
"I have known many an instance of a man
writing a letter and forgetting to sign his name,
but this is the only instance I have ever known of a man
signing his name and forgetting to write the letter."
He also authored some memorable oxymoronic and
paradoxical observations:
"In things pertaining to enthusiasm,
no man is sane who does not know
how to be insane on proper
occasions."
"Pushing any truth out very far,
you are met by a counter-truth."
"Next to ingratitude
the most painful thing to bear is gratitude."
PUZZLER ANSWER: "Hamlet"
DR. MARDY'S THOUGHTS OF THE WEEK:
"People always remember when you forget,
and they never forget when you remember." (chi)
"The search for a bit of temporary pleasure
can lead to a lot of permanent pain." (oxy-para)
Until next week,
Dr. Mardy Grothe
drmgrothe@chiasmus.com
DR. MARDY'S QUOTES OF THE WEEK -- February 9 - 15, 2003
A Weekly Celebration of
Chiastic, Oxymoronic, & Paradoxical Quotations
This is the week of February 9, 2003 to February 15, 2003
THIS WEEK'S CHIASTIC PUZZLER:
Last Sunday (2/2/03), in a New York Times op/ed piece titled
"Who has the Hot Rods," this popular syndicated columnist once
again revealed her fondness for chiasmus when she wrote:
"The Bush administration has made
fuzzy evidence against Iraq
sound scarier than it is,
and scary evidence against North Korea
sound fuzzier than it is." (Answer below)
QUOTES IN HISTORY
(AND THE HISTORY BEHIND THE QUOTES)
On February 9, 1881, Fyodor Dostoevsky died of a cerebral
hemorrhage in St. Petersburg at age 59. With "The Brothers
Karamazov," "Crime and Punishment" and "Notes From the
Underground," he was a towering figure in world literature.
While the rest of the world rushed into an Age of Reason,
Dostoevsky abandoned his earlier atheism and became devoutly
religious, believing Russia should become the spiritual leader of
the world. In "The Brothers Karamazov," he wrote chiastically:
"It is not miracles that generate faith,
but faith that generates miracles."
Dostoevsky was also adept at oxymoronic phrasing, writing:
"The greatest happiness is
to know the source of unhappiness."
"In despair there are the most intense enjoyments,
especially when one is very acutely conscious
of the hopelessness of one's position."
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
On February 10, 1894, Harold Macmillan was born in London. A
descendant of the founder of the publishing house of Macmillan
and Company, he was educated at Eton and Oxford. After a
long career in public service, he succeeded Sir Anthony Eden as
Prime Minister of England in 1957, serving until 1963. He said in
a 1961 speech:
"As usual the Liberals offer
a mixture of sound and original ideas.
Unfortunately none of the sound ideas is original
and none of the original ideas is sound."
It's a great line, but not original, and was probably stimulated by
a famous anecdote involving Dr. Samuel Johnson. A young writer
kept bugging Dr. Johnson to read a first-draft of his book. Finally
relenting, Johnson offered perhaps the greatest chiastic put-down
in literary history:
"Your manuscript is both good and original;
but the part that is good is not original,
and the part that is original is not good."
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
On February 11, 1763, William Shenstone died in the home in
which he was born a half century earlier. Born into prosperity,
Shenstone inherited the family estate shortly after graduating
from Oxford University. He was the very model of the model
18th century English gentleman, writing poetry engaging in art
collecting, and diligently tending a beautifully-landscaped estate
(he was the first person to use the term "landscape gardening").
While he never achieved lasting fame as a writer or poet, he
did produce some memorable lines, including this example of
chiastic shorthand:
"Every good poet includes a critic,
but the reverse will not hold."
And these oxymoronic observations:
"Offensive objects, at a proper distance,
acquire even a degree of beauty."
"We hate those faults most in others
which we are guilty of ourselves."
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
On February 12, 1809, Abraham Lincoln was born in a log cabin
(yes, that's true) in the backwoods of Kentucky. Growing up on
pioneer farms in Kentucky and Indiana, he received almost no
formal education, but became a true autodidact (the formal term
for a self-taught person), hungrily devouring book after book.
After moving to Illinois and working at a variety of jobs, he
studied law and entered the world of politics, eventually becoming
the 16th U. S. President in 1861. Perhaps the most famous
Lincoln quote of all is one that, according to scholars, he may
have never really made:
"It is true that
you may fool all the people some of the time;
you can even fool some of the people all the time;
but you can't fool all of the people all the time."
Lincoln authored one of history's best chiastic replies. During the
Civil War, a visitor to the White House said, "God is on our side."
Without missing a beat, Lincoln replied:
"We trust, sir, that God is on our side.
It is more important to know
that we are on God's side."
Lincoln was also the recipient of one of the greatest oxymoronic
insults of all time. In an 1863 letter to a friend, Walt Whitman
wrote about him:
"He has a face like a hoosier Michael Angelo,
so awful ugly it becomes beautiful,
with its strange mouth, its deep-cut,
criss-cross lines, and its doughnut complexion."
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
On February 13, 1974, Alexander Solzhenitsyn, winner of the
Nobel Prize in 1970, was expelled from the USSR and deported to
Germany. For years he was a thorn in the side of Soviet leaders,
who become enraged with the 1973 publication of the "The Gulag
Archipelago," a brilliant account of Stalinist terror. He eventually
settled in the United States. In his 1970 Nobel Prize speech he
said chiastically:
"Mankind's salvation lies exclusively in
everyone's making everything his business,
in the people of the East being anything but indifferent to
what is thought in the West, and
in the people of the West being anything but indifferent to
what happens in the East."
In his 1968 book "The First Circle," he wrote oxymoronically:
"You only have power over people as long as
you don't take everything away from them.
But when you've robbed a man of everything
he's no longer in your power--he's free
again."
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
On February 14, 1817, Frederick Douglass was born a slave in
Tuckahoe (near Easton) Maryland. He escaped in 1838,
changed his name, and settled in Massachusetts. He became
a popular spokesman for the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery
Society, traveling throughout the U. S. and the British Isles.
He also became a successful businessman (the first Black man
to own a publishing house), a diplomat (ambassador to Haiti),
and the author of three autobiographies (considered the best
"slave narratives" ever written). In them he wrote several
memorable examples of chiasmus:
"You have seen how a man was made a slave,
you shall see how a slave was made a man."
"Men may not get all they pay for in this world,
but they certainly pay for all they get."
"A man is worked upon by what he works on.
He may carve out his circumstances,
but his circumstances will carve him out as well."
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
On February 15, 1861, Alfred North Whitehead was born in
London. An extraordinary mathematician and philosopher, he
achieved international fame by collaborating with former pupil
Bertrand Russell on the groundbreaking "Principia Mathematica,"
called the greatest single contribution to logic since Aristotle.
He finished off his teaching career at Harvard, where students
flocked to his lectures, mesmerized by his erudition. His
eloquence included examples of oxymoronica:
"Seek simplicity, and distrust it."
"It is no paradox to say that
in our most theoretical moods we may be
nearest to our most practical applications."
And of chiasmus:
"A man of science doesn't discover in order to know,
he wants to know in order to discover."
"The art of progress is
to preserve order amid change,
and to preserve change amid order."
PUZZLER ANSWER: Maureen Dowd
DR. MARDY'S THOUGHTS OF THE WEEK:
"A chiastic irony:
Why do we always
remember the stuff we try to forget,
and forget the stuff we try to remember?"
(chi)
"By trying to make things easier for their children
parents can make things much harder for them."
(oxy-para)
Until next week,
Dr. Mardy Grothe
drmgrothe@chiasmus.com
--------------------------------------------------
DR. MARDY'S QUOTES OF THE WEEK -- Feb. 23-March 1, 2003
A Weekly Celebration of
Chiastic, Oxymoronic, & Paradoxical Quotations
This is the week of February 23, 2003 to March 1, 2003
THIS WEEK'S OXYMORONIC PUZZLER:
In her 1978 book "Metropolitan Life," this popular American writer wrote:
"Contrary to what many of you might imagine,
a career in letters is not without its drawback--
chief among them the unpleasant fact that
one is frequently called upon to sit down and
write."
Who is the writer? (Answer below)
QUOTES IN HISTORY
(AND THE HISTORY BEHIND THE QUOTES)
On February 23, 1821, John Keats died of consumption (now known
as tuberculosis) in Rome, his life cut short at age 25. The son of a
livery stable worker, Keats abandoned his medical studies to devote
his life to poetry. With masterpieces like "Endymion," "Ode on a
Grecian Urn," and "To a Nightingale," he became one of the greatest
English Romantic lyric poets. His poetry was marked by vivid
imagery, sensuous appeal, and an attempt to express philosophy
through classical legend. In 1964, professor J. Donald Adams wrote,
"There is no greater poem in English than the 'Ode on a Grecian Urn'."
The poem contains a famous oxymoronic line:
"Heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard
Are sweeter."
And one of the most famous chiastic passages in literary history:
"'Beauty is truth, truth beauty'--that is all
Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know."
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
On February 24, 1998, Henny Youngman died at age 92 after a
long career in which he became one of America's most popular
comedians. Known as the "King of the One-Liners," his most
famous line was the classic "Take my wife--please." Like many
comedians, Youngman made many incisive observations about
serious topics, as in this penetrating chiastic observation about
the reason for marital failure:
"Most marriage failures
are caused by failures marrying."
Chiasmus appeared frequently in his routines:
"The reason some people become old before their time
is because they had a time before they got old."
"The good die young because
only the young die good."
"Ad in Variety: 'Lion-tamer,
looking for a tamer lion.'"
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
On February 25, 1904, Adelle Davis was born. Trained in dietetics,
nutrition, and biochemistry in the 1930s, Davis was among the
earliest people to warn about the dangers of eating processed
food. With books like "Let's Have Healthy Children" in 1961, she
became an immensely popular health-food advocate. The medical
establishment was initially skeptical of her recommendations, a
situation exacerbated by a number of errors and unfounded
claims in her books. Her popularity receded in the late 60s when
she was sued by parents whose children died as a result of her
recommendations (a 1969 White House conference on Food and
Nutrition said that she was a major source of false information
about nutrition). Despite some major mistakes during her career,
she is now regarded as a pioneering figure in the area of health
and nutrition, and the weight of medical opinion has generally
accepted her overall views about healthy eating. In "Let's Have
Healthy Children," she wrote oxymoronically:
"It is strange indeed that
the more we learn about how to build health,
the less healthy Americans become."
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
On February 26, 1802, Victor Hugo was born in Besancon, France.
Though regarded by the French as one of the country's greatest
poets, Hugo is mainly known throughout the world for novels like
"Les Miserables" (1862). He developed a novel approach to writing.
In the morning, he gave all his clothes to his valet, who was
instructed to return them only after Hugo had finished writing for
the day. "Les Miserables" contains many quotable quotes, including
these examples of oxymoronica:
"Melancholy is the pleasure of being sad."
"The malicious have a dark happiness."
"Strong and bitter words indicate a weak cause."
It also contains this memorable chiastic observation:
"When we are at the end of life,
to die means to go away;
when we are at the beginning,
to go away means to die."
As baby-boomers started reaching middle age, one of Hugo's aphorisms began to
enjoy renewed popularity:
"Forty is the old age of youth;
fifty is the youth of old age."
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
On February 27, 1807, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was born in
Portland, Maine. After graduating from Maine's Bowdoin College
(with Nathaniel Hawthorne as a classmate), he briefly taught at
his alma mater before accepting a professorship at Harvard (where
he taught for 18 years). With poems like "The Village Blacksmith,"
"Paul Revere's Ride," and "Hiawatha," he became one of America's
most highly regarded poets. In a chiastic line from the 1847 poem
"Evangeline," he wrote:
"Talk not of wasted affection,
affection never was wasted."
In the 1839 poem "Hyperion," he added a contribution to the grand
oxymoronic theme of "The Sounds of Silence," when he wrote:
"There is no grief like the grief which does not speak."
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
On February 28, 1533, Michel de Montaigne was born near Bordeaux,
France. Tutored in the family chateau at Montaigne, he received
an excellent classical education and went on to study law. After a
brief attempt at a legal career, he retired to Montaigne to devote
himself to reading, writing, and meditation. With his 1580 book
"Essais," he established a whole new literary form, the essay.
About his famous book he said chiastically:
"Everyone recognizes me in my book,
and my book in me."
In his essay on marriage, he made a remarkable (and widely-quoted)
chiastic observation on the institution:
"It may be compared to a cage,
the birds without try desperately to get in,
and those within try desperately to get out."
Montaigne's essays also contain many examples of oxymoronica,
including these:
"Nothing fixes a thing so intensely in the memory
as the wish to forget it."
"He who would teach men to die
would teach them to live."
"I have seen people rude
by being over-polite."
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
On March 1, 1920, Howard Nemerov was born in New York City.
After graduating from Harvard in 1941, Nemerov served as a pilot
in WWII, flying for a Royal Canadian Air Force unit attached to the
U. S. Army Air Force. After the war, he established a reputation
as a major poet, novelist, and critic while teaching at a number of
Universities (Bennington, Brandeis, Washington Univ.). In 1978, he
was awarded the Pulitzer Prize as well as the National Book Award
for "The Collected Poems of Howard Nemerov." In 1988 he was
named poet laureate of the United States, a position he held for
two years. Nemerov's poems and other writings were loaded with
irony, satire, and a wry wit. He authored one of my favorite
oxymoronic observations about sex:
"We think about sex obsessively
except during the act,
when our minds tend to wander."
PUZZLER ANSWER: Fran Lebowitz
DR. MARDY'S THOUGHTS OF THE WEEK:
"A chiastic riddle:
What's the difference between
gifted athletes and conspicuous consumers?
One possess many prizes,
the other prizes many possessions." (chi)
"People who are happy with the least
may clearly be said to have the most." (oxy-para)
Until next week,
Dr. Mardy Grothe
drmgrothe@chiasmus.com
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