Yes, I'm amazed that there's never been a thread on this topic before. Anyway, here are a couple of well-known ones by Auden:
Private faces in public places
Are wiser and nicer
Than public faces in private places.
Pick a quarrel, go to war,
Leave the hero in the bar;
Hunt the lion, climb the peak:
No one guesses you are weak.
And one of the best political epigrams of all time, from the Peasants' Revolt:
When Adam delved and Eve span,
Who was then the gentleman?
Last edited by Gregory Dowling; 09-05-2015 at 10:02 AM.
Reason: Too many "places" in the Auden epigram: thanks, Andrew M.
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