Could you conceive humorous moral stories and then reduce them to a sentence or two? James Russell Lowell did it admirably.

6 Quotes From James Russell Lowell
1819-1891

Democracy is the form of government that gives every man the right to be his own oppressor.
Mishaps are like knives, that either serve us or cut us, as we grasp them by the blade or by the handle.
One thorn of experience is worth a whole wilderness of warning.
The foolish and the dead alone never change their opinions.
The greatest homage we can pay to truth, is to use it.
There is no good in arguing with the inevitable. The only argument available with an east wind is to put on your overcoat.