The Chiasmus

(MS Word Version)

 

Mankind must put an end to war, or war will put an end to mankind. - – John F. Kennedy

 

It’s not always easy to be clever, but is it ever clever to be easy?

 

Winners never quit; and quitters never win. – unknown

 

It’s not always nice to be right, but is it ever not right to be nice?

 

Love is the wisdom of the fool and the folly of the wise. - Samuel Johnson

 

General Lee never surrendered his honor and the nation has always honored his surrender.

 

It starts when you sink in his arms and ends with your arms in his sink.  - unknown

 

Think it over, but don’t over-think it.

 

Why do we drive on a parkway and park on a driveway? - Richard Lederer

 

It had been such a long spell since she had to spell such a long word.

 

Sin is not hurtful because it is forbidden, but it is forbidden because it is hurtful. Ben Franklin

 

"I wasted time, and now doth time waste me." – William Shakespeare, King Richard II (1595-96)

 

 

 

The chiasmus is an example of a language pattern.

 

Can you describe this pattern?

 

What tone is given to the meaning of the sentences arranged in a chiastic pattern?

 

Can you make up a chiasmus that follows the pattern demonstrated by the examples above?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Find more examples of the Chiasmus below or look at Dr. Mardy Grothe’s Chiasmus website at http://www.chiasmus.com/

 

 

Middle age is when work is a lot less fun and fun a lot more work.

 

The art of progress is to preserve order amid change, and to preserve change amid order. - Alfred North Whitehead

 

Let us never negotiate out of fear; but let us never fear to negotiate. – John F. Kennedy

 

An optimist sees an opportunity in every calamity; a pessimist sees a calamity in every opportunity.Winston Churchill

 

The fool doth think he is wise, but the wise man knows himself to be a fool.'"William Shakespeare, As You Like It (1599-1600)

 

When I was young and had time to read, I had no books. Now that I am old and have the books, I have no time to read.Ben Franklin

 

Where there is hunger, law is not regarded; and where law is not regarded, there will be hunger. – Ben Franklin

 

The honest man takes pains, and then enjoys pleasures; the knave takes pleasures, and then suffers pain. – Ben Franklin

 

Thou can'st not joke an enemy into a friend, but thou may'st a friend into an enemy.Ben Franklin

 

Plato is philosophy, and philosophy Plato. – Ralph Waldo Emerson

 

Flowers are lovely, love is flowerlike. - Samuel Taylor Coleridge

 

Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed. - Genesis 9:6

 

Men do not quit playing because they grow old; they grow old because they quit playing." - Oliver Wendell Holmes

 

It is better to deserve honors and not have them than to have them and not deserve them." - Mark Twain

 

The mind can create a heaven of hell and hell of heaven – John Milton, Paradise Lost