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June 2000
We learn better by doing,
and we do better by learning.
In life, the wisest course of action is generally not the most popular,
and the most popular course of action is often not the wisest.
The popular Zen Buddhist saying can be reversed
in the case of the Miracle-Working Anne Sullivan:
"When this teacher was ready, the student did appear."
Have you ever noticed that
the thinnest people tend to be the most fat-headed
and the fattest people the most thin-skinned?
When expressing their opinions,
people make two major blunders:
never stopping to think and
never thinking to stop.
Advice for CEOs:
Think like a leader and
lead like a thinker.
It's always a mistake to think you're
too important to do unimportant things
and vice versa.
Advice to CEOs:
If you want people to buy into your vision,
make sure your vision is worth buying into.
Willy and Waylon won a Grammy for their musical warning,
"Mammas, Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up To Be Cowboys."
Maybe they should've also warned them about the converse:
"Don't Let Your Cowboys Grow Up to Be Babies."
When a husband stops kissing the Mrs.
It's the wife who starts missing the kisses.
While some people need to put toughness in their love.
there are even more who need to put some love in their toughness.
There's more joy in the pursuit of meaning
than there is meaning in the pursuit of joy.
In the following four observations, the words of popular sayings are reversed. I have coined the term "implied chiasmus" to describe such quotations.
For more on this fascinating type of chiasmus, see Implied Chiasmus.
How to fix a stuck zipper:
Put a little ointment on the fly.
All elementary school children have
experienced the labor of division.
Most red-blooded American men are firmly
committed to the happiness of pursuit.
Lance Armstrong's recent Tour de France performances
are a perfect example of a man
putting his mettle to the pedal.
July 2000
The world may be fortunate that
the most fanatical do-gooders
have not been especially good-doers.
Exceptionally good children can spoil their parents,
just as much as
exceptionally bad parents can spoil their children.
Have you ever noticed that
the people who have all the answers
don't understand the questions,
and the people who ask all the questions
don't appreciate the answers?
These following three quotations are examples of "shorthand chiasmus." In such observations, expressions like "vice versa" and "the reverse is true" are used to indicate a chiastic reversal.
Chiastic shorthand is not only characterized by an economy of words, but it has the added benefit of drawing people into the expression as they are forced to complete the thought themselves.
For more on this type of chiasmus, see Chiastic Shorthand.
The two biggest problems in marital intimacy are
too much desire and not enough sex,
and vice versa.
Many people are attracted to the romance in danger;
with many others, the reverse is true.
The wise person knows other people without judging them;
the fool does exactly the opposite.
When people do bad things,
are their heads in the wrong?
Or is the wrong in their heads?
In a tragic irony, many relationships begin
with a woman asking a man to protect her from others,
and end with her asking others to protect her from the man.
Always try to understand, especially when you don't agree;
but never agree until you're sure you understand.
According to a time-honored tradition,
the heroic warrior never
displays a fear or fears a display.
Golf is a game which is
all about playing the difficult lies
and lying about the difficult plays.
August 2000
The odd man used to be out
and the "out" man used to be odd.
But now the "out" man is in
and the "in" man is odd.
Some character actors are
so villainous-looking that
they make very good bad guys
and very bad good guys.
It's hard to keep a good man down, it's true;
but it's also hard to keep a down man good.
The 2000 Republican Convention was
a mirror image of the 1992 Democratic Convention.
Then we saw a Democrat promoting traditionally Republican values.
This year we saw exactly the reverse.
Working out reduces stress and
stressing out reduces work.
There are degrees of pedantry,
and, all too often, pedantry in degrees.
When we're young, we test the limits.
When we're old, we limit the testing.
The reason great political oratory is dead is because
too many politicians think dead political oratory is great.
While it's okay to feel a fear,
you should never fear a feeling.
Religious traditionalists warn against making a God of man.
Religious progressives warn against making a man of God.
And feminist theologians agree with both.
"Wealthy and powerful people tend to be
great at judging the pathology of the poor,
but poor at judging their own great pathology.
Why do we so readily criticize business people for being bad at philosophy
and so easily forgive philosophers for being bad at business?
When employees don't raise the bar,
employers tend to bar the raises.
September 2000
Don't be content with
simply trying to do your best,
be the best at what you're trying to do.
We begin life learning how to wrinkle our faces
and end by learning how to face our wrinkles.
We usually say, "What a difference a day makes."
But when somebody makes a much-needed change,
we can also say, "What a day a difference makes."
Defeat does not necessarily mean failure,
and failure does not necessarily mean defeat.
The French aphorist La Rochefoucauld wrote,
"The mind cannot long act the role of the heart."
He might also have written, "And vice versa."
When the Knights of the Round Table got old and overweight,
I wonder if people began calling them the Table of the Round Knights.
The only people not welcome
at youth hostels are hostile youths.
People who can't quit smoking
may want to ask themselves,
"Have I really tried to stop,
or have I stopped really trying?"
The world would be a better place if…
… wise people had more power
and powerful people more wisdom.
… creative types were more businesslike
and business types more creative.
… hard-nosed people were more soft-hearted
and soft-hearted people more hard-nosed.
… serious people were more fun-loving
and fun-loving people more serious.
We don't see things the way they are,
we are because of the way we see things.
Below are three chiastic riddles I've created for your puzzling pleasure. After each riddle, I'll provide a hint that should be helpful in suggesting the answer.
Try to work them out before looking at the answers, which appear just after the riddles:
1. What's the difference between a forgetful person and an ugly one?
(Hint: Think about "faces" and "memories").
2. What's the difference between driveways and parkways?
(Hint: Think about what you do on each).
3. How have Baby Boomers changed from the 1970s to the present day?
(Hint: Think "weed").
And the answers are:
1. The forgetful person has a bad memory for faces;
the ugly person a bad face for memories.
2. People drive on parkways
and park on driveways.
3. They used to be interested in killer weed;
now they're interested in weed killer.
October 2000
What did the homicidal boarding house owner plead in court?
"The deaths of my roomers are greatly exaggerated."
Motto of the highly competitive athlete:
"Whatever doesn't make me better, kills me."
Motto of the Black-and-White thinker:
To question or not to question, that is the way to be.
These all example of "implied chiasmus," in which the words of popular sayings are reversed. For more on the device, see
Implied Chiasmus.
Cops not only tail suspects,
they also suspect their tales.
The art of lying consists of
telling a story that is true,
but not the true story.
People begin by thinking that they are helping the handicapped
and end by realizing that it is the handicapped that have helped them.
Here are three more chiastic riddles for your puzzling pleasure. In each case, I'll provide a hint to help you divine the answer.
1. What did the school of tuna say to the fishermen?
(Hint: think "catching" and "canning")
2. What's the difference between a fickle woman and a penny-pinching woman?
(Hint: thing about two different meanings of "change")
3. What's the difference between an amorous policeman and his affectionate wife?
(Hint: think "cop" and what amorous people do).
Try to resist the temptation to look ahead. Chiastic riddles are much more satisfying when you solve them on your own. The answers are:
1. Catch us if you can and can us if you catch us.
2. One changes her mind and the other minds her change.
3. He cops a feel and she feels a cop.
Some people have a passionate regard for life,
others only a lifetime regard for passion.
While a fact can sometimes speak volumes,
too often a volume only speaks facts.
Stuffing your face
is not a good way
of facing your stuff.
The need to demonstrate strength reveals weakness,
the willingness to reveal weakness demonstrates strength.
November 2000
When image is everything,
everything is image.
In problem solving,
people rarely exhaust the alternatives;
usually the alternatives exhaust the people.
For centuries, people have said that
life can only be lived fully when it has meaning.
But isn't it also true that
life can only have meaning when it is lived fully?
Referring to ancient Greece, the German writer Schiller wrote:
"When the gods were more manlike,
Men were more godlike."
Comparing the Greek gods to the Judeo-Christian God,
I wonder if he was also suggesting:
"When God became less manlike,
did man became less godlike?"
"Hope leads to the loss of fear,
and fear to the loss of hope."
(a tip of the hat to John Milton)
Winners have trouble accepting failure;
losers have trouble failing to accept.
One can look good without being good-looking,
and good-looking without looking good.
The world can be roughly divided into two types:
those who look better than they are,
and those who are better than they look.
If your work is not in your heart
your heart will never be in your work.
It's hard to keep a good thing going
and a going thing good.
The correct course of action is not always obvious,
and the obvious course of action is not always correct.
We used to focus on ways of bringing people to work.
In the electronic age, the situation is reversed,
and we now focus on ways of bringing work to people.
December 2000
The love of music is sweet,
but never so sweet as the music of love.
Never treat life like a game
or a game like it was life.
W. H. Auden once said, "To ask the hard question is simple."
He might have added, "And to ask the simple question is hard."
People may not always get what they deserve,
but they usually deserve what they get.
The widespread use of tobacco threatens the health industry,
and a widespread focus on health threatens the tobacco industry.
For free-spending materialists, money is no object.
For self-denying ascetics, the object is no money.
When people change their minds,
isn't it more accurate to say
that their minds have changed them?
People have always hoped that life will bring love,
but what they really love is when life brings hope.
The following four quotations are examples of "shorthand chiasmus," a term I coined to refer to chiastic reversals that are indicated by such verbal conventions as "vice versa" or "the reverse is true."
For more on this type of chiasmus, see Chiastic Shorthand.
For centuries, people have used power and influence to obtain sex,
and vice versa.
In criminal courts, the worst people look their best;
in civil courts, the opposite is true.
For more than 200 years,
Presidents have named members of the Supreme Court.
This past week, that process was reversed.
The most serious point can be made with a joke.
The reverse is not true.
The wisest people learn
to be accepting of criticism,
and critical of acceptance.
When parents tune in to their kids,
kids get in tune with their parents.
What is learned unwillingly
will be willingly unlearned.
Many have sought happiness without finding it,
but not many have found happiness without seeking it.
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