Overheard at work yesterday: “If things don’t change they’ll stay as they are”, which made me smile. Reminded me of the Glenn Dakin (triffic cartoonist) saying “If you weren’t here you were somewhere else.”
Any other good ones in the comments please.
I guess the classic truisms of Yogi Berra, the baseball player, top my list. His most famous: “It’s deja vu all over again”. Here’s a few more: http://rinkworks.com/said/yogiberra.shtml
“The trouble with the rat race is that even if you win, you’re still a rat.”
-Lily Tomlin
“What is a committee? A group of the unwilling, picked from the unfit, to do the unnecessary.”
-Richard Harkness
If you ever had a coughing fit, or choked on your sandwich, my (afore-mentioned) factory supervisor would invariably say “Cough it up, it might be a gold watch.” But I don’t suppose that’s the sort of thing you were looking for really.
My current one is:
It’s a small world — and I *would* like to paint it.
I think it was Kevin Keegan who said ‘this match could go one of two ways- England could win, or they could lose- or it might be a draw’.
No, you’re all missing the point! Well, Dad’s got it, but the rest of you…
What I’m after is an X = X statement which is intentional and, despite being blindingly obvious has an inspirational quality, in that it makes you stop and realise that sometimes the way things are is the way things are, and that that’s important.
Maybe that’s not a truism, in which case I apologise, but it’s what I’m after, dammit!
(But thanks anyway, always nice to have you here, help yourself to tea, etc…)
OH, I see … you don’t want the original statement, you want the rider.
“It’s a small world — oh, wait, not it’s not.”
Can’t think of one off the top of my head but thanks for all the others, very amusing!
Nope, still not there. Maybe this is harder than I thought. I can’t think of any myself.
There is a similar one to the Glenn Dakin one you posted, ‘If your not here, your there,’ but not sure it counts or who said/says it. Also does the ‘sure as eggs is eggs’ saying work for you, Pete.
Looks like we are all desperately trying to help. This is harder than it sounds.
Okay, the forumla we’re looking for is “if X is Y, then X is Y” so “If those elephants cross the river then there’ll be elephants here” would work but, and this is the important part, it doesn’t have that little something that brings a smile and creates a thought. Dan’s first one is interesting. Compare it with Dakin’s:
Dan: “If you’re not here, you’re there”
Dakin: “If you weren’t here you were somewhere else.”
Exactly the same statement but Dakin wins outright. There’s something in the phrasing I think. I’m searching for the right word but it’s escaping me. It’s got to have…
Analyzing the “if X is Y, then X is Y” syllogism arrives at the conclusion that this is either purely for emphasis or else it’s a result of careless use of English. Interesting that Sam Goldwyn is another character who, because his English was not very good, tended to stress the obvious by repeating the statement using different words. Almost as good as Yogi!
I’m wondering if it’s a subtle form of irony, because there’s something knowing about the way the statement is made. It’s not emphasis or carelessness – it’s quite relaxed and deliberate…
Close to your original eavesdropping, I remember a piece of wistful graffiti from seventies London – “Everything was so different before it all changed”
Thanks Meg, that’s perfect! It sounds like it’s saying something profound but actually isn’t, and during the process of figuring out that it isn’t profound at all it comes over all profound.
That’s what I’m after!
Looks like it helps if they are in the past tense as the best ones here are both past tense and though mine and Glenn’s are the same it is the tense that changes the phrasing significantly. Must be something to do with the profound/not-profound/profound dynamic. Perhaps the past tense helps with that. Somebody should do a dictionary/resource book of these things. That said, at present it would be a pretty short book. Cheap, though.
There’s nothing you like so much as the things that please you.
Here’s one of mine. Hope it passes muster: Worrying cannot be counted as time spent toward solving the problem.
Its funny, when I’m confused it’s so hard to explain.
“He is isolated all on his own.” Not profound, but courtesy of a football commentator. I think that it’s called a pleonasm.
favourite statement of Jack Adaire mid 70′s
“Well if you dont do it now,you will have to wait until you do it”