"An alert copyreader on a newspaper couldn’t believe it when he read a reporter’s account of the theft of 2025 pigs. That’s a lot of pigs, he thought, and called the farmer to check the copy. “Is it true that you lost 2025 pigs?” he asked. “Yeth,” lisped the farmer. “Thanks,” returned the copyreader, and corrected the story to read “two sows and 25 pigs."

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More by Evan Esar

“Play: Work that you enjoy doing for nothing.”

“The personal comparative is marked by epigrammatic self-satire. It implies that everyone thinks himself better than anyone else, but only the egoist says so.”

“Many a man who falls in love with a dimple make the mistake of marrying the whole girl.”

“Zoo: An excellent place to study the habits of human beings.”

“The history of humorous writing discloses everchanging trends. Our fast-paced modern living is too impatient for the lengthy light verse and the leisurely essays of our forefathers.”

“An epigram is the marriage of wit, and wisdom; a wisecrack, their divorce.”

Resonant Thoughts

"The passion and beauty and joy of science is that we humans have invented a process to understand the universe in a way that is true for everyone. We are finding universal truths."

— Bill Nye

Science

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"Remember above all to be true to yourself. It is ok to act and to pretend that something is ok, but admit the truth to yourself."

— Nigel Cumberland

personal development1967

#truth

"What is needed is the right to print what one believes to be true, without having to fear bullying or blackmail from any side."

— George Orwell

performing arts1903–1950

#truth

"I had expected that the situation in West Bengal will change after Mamata came to power. But I was wrong. I found her harsher than the earlier Left Front government... Politicians are all on the same …"

— Mamata Banerjee

Politics1955

#politics