You live only once The logician would argue, You only live once should be rewritten as You live only once, with only next to the thing it qualifies, once. The logician would be unbearably pedantic, but there is a grain of good taste in the pedantry. Writing is often clearer and more elegant when a writer pushes an only or a not next to the thing that it quantifies. In 1962 John F. Kennedy declared, “We choose to go to the moon not because it is easy but because it is hard.” That sounds a lot classier than “We don’t choose to go to the moon because it is easy but because it is hard." Steven Pinker, The Sense of Style grammar
Mountains are mountains Before attaining enlightenment, mountains are mountains, rivers are rivers. At the moment of enlightenment, mountains are no longer mountains, nor are rivers rivers. After attaining enlightenment, mountains are mountains, rivers are rivers. Yuanwu Keqin, Thomas Cleary & J.C. Cleary, The Blue Cliff Record Don't Rush to SimplicityJust a whinny again zennature