Chiastic Phrases You Love. . . (meaning, sentence, examples, quote)

[chacho_keva]

A chiastic phrase is defined as "a grammatical figure by which the order of words in one of two of parallel clauses is inverted in the other."

For example:

"One should eat to live, not live to eat."

"Love makes time pass, and time makes love pass."

"A good man is hard to find, but a hard man is good to find." (Mae West)

Have you any others to share?

[Bunjee]

Chiastic, kinda: I'd rather have a bottle in front of me than a frontal lobotomy.

[harry chickpea]

Antimetabole. Hadn't thought much about it so did some quick looking on the net. Makes me wonder if there was more to the name of ABBA than initials.

Dyslexic ones are also fun. "Kids eat free" - "Eat kids free"

Popeye "I yamm what I yamm" becomes "I yamm what I yamm" and in the interrogative becomes "I am, am I?" or to put Descartes before this horse, "I think, therefore I am" becomes "I am, therefore I think"

The concept plays with the identity concept, If A = B, then B = A, but adds or exposes a twist or alternate definitions. Elegant examples are really simple:

"Walk the walk." Of course you can reverse it, but the fun is in:
Walk (the action of walking)
Walk (the sidewalk or path)
Or mix and match any of the following meanings:
go - stroll - tread - step - promenade - pace - wander

This is a pretty good overview:
What is Chiasmus?: drmardy.com

The references to chiasmus in ancient literature seem a bit different and the structure is much closer to a nested "If - Then" in programing.

Thanks for bringing this up.

[juppiter]

From "Mean Girls" -- "I don't hate you because you're fat. You're fat because I hate you."

[Fred314X]

Originally Posted by harry chickpea

The concept plays with the identity concept, If A = B, then B = A, but adds or exposes a twist or alternate definitions.

I actually saw this in print: 60 is the new 40.

[harry chickpea]

Originally Posted by Fred314X

I actually saw this in print: 60 is the new 40.

That goes right alongside "Idiots are the new journalists..."

[chacho_keva]

I'd rather have it and not need it, than to need it and not have it."

(Stated by an instructor with regards to safety equipment)

[linicx]

Which of these phrases read better?

I wake in the middle of the night or

I awake in the middle of the night?

Aside: We already know from the first sentence the couple had slept together in the same bed many times.

.... since last he held me here. Or

.... since he last held me ______? (Maybe no other information is needed)

[CowanStern]

My favorite came from Dr. Clark Kerr, the president of the University of California during the Vietnam war, when he approved a communist speaker to appear on campus:

"The purpose of the university is to make students safe for ideas, not to make ideas safe for students."

[CowanStern]

Here's another one: A woman wants all things from one man. A man wants one thing from all women.