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.