ADAGE, n. A hoary-headed platitude that is kicked along the centuries until nothing is left of it but its clothes. A “saw” which has worn out its teeth on the human understanding.
Ambrose Bierce (1842–1914?) American writer and journalist
“Adage,” “Devil’s Dictionary” column, San Francisco Wasp (1881-03-05)
(Source)
Not collected in later books. Instead, in The Cynic's Word Book (1906), he changed it to "Boned wisdom for weak teeth."
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PLATITUDE. An idea (a) that is admitted to be true by everyone, and (b) that is not true.
H. L. Mencken (1880–1956) American writer and journalist [Henry Lewis Mencken]
A Book of Burlesques, “The Jazz Webster” (1924)
(Source)
See his definition of "epigram."
Variant:Platitude — An idea (a) that is admitted to be true by everyone, and (b) that is not true.
[Chrestomathy, ch. 30 "Sententiae" (1949)]
Almost every wise saying has an opposite one, no less wise, to balance it.
George Santayana (1863–1952) Spanish-American poet and philosopher [Jorge Agustín Nicolás Ruíz de Santayana y Borrás]
The Life of Reason or The Phases of Human Progress, Vol. 5 “Reason in Science,” ch. 8 “Prerational Morality” (1905)
(Source)
SELF-EVIDENT, adj. Evident to one’s self and to nobody else.
Ambrose Bierce (1842–1914?) American writer and journalist
“Self-Evident,” The Devil’s Dictionary (1911)
(Source)
Originally published in The Devil's Dictionary [A-Z] as Vol. 7 of his Collected Works.