Epigram

"The word epigram signified originally an inscription on a monument. It next came to mean a short poem containing some single thought pointedly expre ed, the subjects being very various—amatory, convivial, moral, eulogistic, satirical, humorous, etc. Of the various devices for brevity and point employed in such compositions, especially in modern times, the most frequent is a play upon words.... In the epigram the mind is roused by a conflict or contradiction between the form of the language and the meaning really conveyed."—Bain. Some examples are: "When you have nothing to say, say it." "We can not see the wood for the trees"; that is, we can not get a general view because we are so engro ed with the details. "Verbosity is cured by a large vocabulary"; that is, he who commands a large vocabulary is able to select words that will give his meaning tersely. "By indignities men come to dignities." "Some people are too foolish to commit follies." "He went to his imagination for his facts, and to his memory for his tropes."