Jay Smith

A Plethora of Platitudes: a Collection of Cliches and an Assortment of Adages Jay Smith

Platitudes, cliches and adages are pervasive in almost every part of our everyday lives and in every part of our culture. Every day we either hear them or use them ourselves, often without thinking about them. These "words of wisdom" express our feelings about love, time, money, health, wealth, humor and every aspect of life in general. Usually, they are a shorthand way of expressing an idea. The words used, in most cases, are not meant to be taken literally. Because of their common usage we can ascertain their meaning even in their shorthand form.

There are thousands of platitudes and no one can claim to have heard all of them. Each one can have variations, which express the same, or even different ideas and will change from region to region. Their meaning can also be open to interpretation by the person who uses them.