Epigram - Non-poetic Epigrams

Non-poetic Epigrams

Occasionally, simple and witty statements, though not poetic per se, may also be considered epigrams. Oscar Wilde's witticisms such as "I can resist everything except temptation" are considered epigrams. e.g. : art lies in concealing art. This shows the epigram's tendency towards paradox. Dorothy Parker's witty one-liners can be considered epigrams. Also, Macdonald Carey's legendary line "Like sands through the hourglass, so are the days of our lives" can be considered an epigram, as the meaning of life is concisely explained in a simile. Friedrich Nietzsche considered that "A witticism is an epigram on the death of a feeling," in Human, All Too Human.

The term is sometimes used for particularly pointed or much-quoted quotations taken from longer works.