Shoeless Paraprosdokian

Posted on Sunday, March 22, 2009 
Filed Under Quotes

Before you criticize a man, walk a mile in his shoes. That way, you will be a mile away and he won’t have any shoes.

— Unknown

How could I resist? After yesterday’s exhortation to embrace empathy, it seemed only fitting to also quote a brilliant variation on the old moccasins quote.

It turns out that the above quote is a perfect example of a paraprosdokian – a figure of speech in which the latter part of a sentence or phrase is surprising or unexpected in a way that causes the reader or listener to reframe the first part. Other good examples include my previous post from Ellen DeGeneres or my all time favorite, “When I die I want to go peacefully in my sleep, like my grandfather did . . . and not screaming and yelling like the passengers in his car.”


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One Response to “Shoeless Paraprosdokian”

  1. Friday Shout Out 2010-08-27 | State of Mind Coaching & Training on August 27th, 2010 1:52 pm

    [...] On Monday, I talked about the Greek figure of speech, paraprosdokian.  Paraprosdokian is a very common part of humor.  I referenced these three websites, but I found many more useful results in Google (ambiguity of “many more useful results” intended for humor and is not acknowledged as a paraprosdokian.)  I referenced Grace O’Connell’s Paraprosdokian and Graden Path Sentences, Michael Hacker’s Paraprosdokian, and Heather Hollick’s Shoeless Paraprosdokian.  [...]

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