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For those who don’t know, or may have forgotten, a chiasmus is a grammatical figure by which the order of words in one of two parallel clauses is inverted in the other. That’s how the OED defines it, and that’s pretty much the clearest definition I could offer up.
More directly, JFK’s famous, “Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country,” is a great example of a simple chiasmus. (You pronounce it kahy-az-muhs, by the way, and it comes from a Greek word meaning “to invert.”)
Winston Churchill had a few good ones, too:
“Mankind must put an end to war,
or war will put an end to mankind.”
“We shape our dwellings,
and afterwards our dwellings shape us.”
“The whole history of the world is summed up in the fact that,
when nations are strong, they are not always just,
and when they wish to be just, they are no longer strong.”
Here’s a good one from old Bill Shakespeare: “I wasted time,
and now doth time waste me.”
And one from none other than Ben Franklin: “The heart of the fool
is in his mouth, but the mouth of the wise man is in his heart.”
As always with the Word Wrap, we open it up to you. Can you come up with a good one of your own?
Comments (33)
Comment
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“When the going get’s tough, Sheldon gets going”. :-)
posted by Sheldon Siegel on 4-6-2007 at 8:20 am
Heard in a bar:
She’s good from far, but far from good.
posted by Jachim on 4-6-2007 at 8:20 am
George Carlin:
“You can prick your finger, but don’t finger your prick”
posted by Sheldon Siegel on 4-6-2007 at 8:44 am
Mea West
“It’s not the men in my life, but the life in my men.”
posted by Julianna on 4-6-2007 at 9:06 am
Thing things you own will own you.
Or something to that effect.
posted by Tomas on 4-6-2007 at 9:27 am
On pecuniary woes and acrobatics:
I wish I could pen my balance as easily as I could balance my pen.
posted by jeff on 4-6-2007 at 9:34 am
I like Steve Clark’s quote: “Sometimes the difficulty in choosing teams
isn’t having an odd number of people.
Sometimes it’s having a number of odd people.”
This is from chiasmus.com
posted by Kasee on 4-6-2007 at 9:46 am
How about the Sphinx in the Mystery Men movie? He had a lot of them.
posted by Charles on 4-6-2007 at 9:49 am
The things you own end up owning you -Tyler Durden
posted by adam on 4-6-2007 at 10:03 am
Here’s the best description of life as a woman at my science & engineering college:
The odds are good, but the goods are odd.
posted by Rachel on 4-6-2007 at 10:46 am
Rachel:
That is actually the title of a book. It is a dating guide for single women in Alaska (the most male State.)
posted by n2y2 on 4-6-2007 at 11:02 am
I’d rather have a bottle in front of me than a frontal lobotomy.
posted by Russ on 4-6-2007 at 11:24 am
You guys are clever, quoting famous folk. But how about some originals? Show us how smart you are!
posted by David on 4-6-2007 at 11:29 am
Said of finding men in Alaska:
The odds are good, but the goods are odd.
posted by Annette on 4-6-2007 at 12:17 pm
To grow a seed plant first plant a seed.
To feed a kitty one needs kitty feed.
Where’s my car? My car is where?!
I know, not quite there but close. . .
posted by Kasee on 4-6-2007 at 1:11 pm
Time heals all wounds and time wounds all heels. (I hope)
posted by n2y2 on 4-6-2007 at 1:29 pm
i’m pretty sure mine is original.
posted by jeff on 4-6-2007 at 2:44 pm
If left is right and right is left, then left is all you have left, right?
Those who live their life in a dream, dream about living their life.
Live life for today, for today you may be dying to live for tomorrow.
Understand that we all die and that we are all dying to understand.
Are these okay? It’s not easy to come up with clever phrases that turn on themselves. Thanks for the word. I never knew. :)
posted by Jason on 4-6-2007 at 3:02 pm
You can take a test and fail or you can fail to take the test
posted by Steve on 4-6-2007 at 3:40 pm
the movie mystery men had a lot of good ones. here’s one, paraphrased:
“when you can balance a tack hammer on your head, you can head off your foes with a balanced attack”
posted by phil on 4-6-2007 at 4:38 pm
Neither one of these qualify as a true chiasmus, but oh well!
You can pick your friends, and you can pick your nose, but you can’t pick your friend’s nose.
One giant step for man, one giant leap for mankind.
posted by Leah on 4-6-2007 at 5:07 pm
I don’t know if this has ever been published, but it’s definitely not my own – i just heard it a while back, and was tickled:
“Failing to plan is planning to fail.”
posted by Sandra on 4-6-2007 at 5:34 pm
Oooh, I’ve always loved these things! But I never knew the word for em. Thanks for that. Chiastic quotes are the ultimate for OCD people like me, cause they match so nicely!
posted by Rosalie on 4-6-2007 at 6:55 pm
A hard man is good to find. (by Mae West)
If they’re so Rich, why aren’t they Smart.
Not all conservatives are stupid, but nearly all stupid people are conservatives.
Some people _____ to live, others live to _____.
(i.e.)Some people eat to live, others live to eat.
Some people work to live, others live to work.
posted by moebius on 4-7-2007 at 1:13 am
I came up with this one a while back when i was on hard times…
“When you’re poor it rains; and when it rains, it pours.”
p.s. does that count even though the words aren’t the same?
posted by Mescan on 4-7-2007 at 4:03 pm
How about:
“Why, I wonder, do I wonder why?”
posted by Thursday on 4-8-2007 at 12:13 am
“Two wrongs do not make a right, but three lefts do…”
posted by Doc Stuart on 4-8-2007 at 11:45 am
People don’t know what they like; they like what they know.
And
You don’t deserve what you get or get what you deserve.
posted by Dolly on 4-8-2007 at 6:45 pm
“(People) Hate Dying But Most (People) Die Hating.”
One of my favorite rappers, Jadakiss, had this insightful tidbit into the ‘crabs in a barrel’ mentality that has pervaded many a folk in and outside hip hop culture.
“Hating” in the context he’s using the term is performing any act of jealousy — also: performing an envious gesture, or possessing a thought of envy.
posted by Bernie Brogden on 4-9-2007 at 9:10 am
Has anyone mentioned another famous Franklin wordplay? It is similar to a chiasmus, but a bit different. When encouraging John Hancock to sign the Declaration of Independance, the witty wordster quipped, in an exceptionally morbid tone, “We must all hang together, or surely we will all hang separately.”
posted by Allison on 4-9-2007 at 9:30 am
‘She’s pretty. She’s ugly. … She’s pretty ugly’. My dad commenting on a girl whos not quite pretty or ugly…
posted by Stan on 4-12-2007 at 1:24 pm
As to JFK’s famous quote, Warren G Harding said it first!
posted by Karen on 5-1-2007 at 12:08 pm
Overheard at a conference:
“Just because there’s a gap in the market doesn’t mean there’s a market in the gap.”
posted by Jason on 5-10-2007 at 7:23 pm