What is the difference between an aphorism and an epigram? Epigrams usually rhyme, are often funny and cynical, and are often intended to castigate or criticize a rival. When they are also philosophical, they are aphorisms. Martial (Geary’s Guide, pp. 293-294) is the Western author most closely associated with the form, though people like Dorothy Parker, Ogden Nash, and Alexander Pope also wrote what could be considered epigrams. Jim Adams writes epigrams that meet the aphoristic criterion. His use of the form, he writes, reflects his “‘essentialist’ disposition, one that pushes me to do my best to get to the core of things, and to respond to what I find as simply and concisely as possible.” His website has more about his epigrams and paintings, which he calls “visual epigrams,” as well as his book, Epigrams.

Different Strokes

 

Some

Curse

The

Distractions

That

Keep

Them

From

Living their lives,

Others

Can’t

Live

Without

Them.

Tautologies

 

Taking

The

Lord’s

Name

Is

Always

In

Vain.

Generation

 

No

Single

Little

Thing

Changes

Things

More than

An

Offspring.

Parallels

 

Somehow,

Both love

And

Democracy

Are

Particularly

Vulnerable

To the

Contempt

Of

Familiarity.

GDP

 

A

Truly

Developed

Country

Would

Know

It

Need

No

Longer

Grow.

Recipe

 

Tolerance’s

Main

Ingredient

Is

Expedience.