Front Matter

Everything has been said before, but since nobody listens we have to keep going back and begin all over again. – Andre Gide, Le Traité du Narcisse

Thus reads one of the very few epigraphs that I remember well. It’s from the philosopher Shelly Kagan’s book, The Limits of Morality, and it is memorable both for being unexpected—Kagan’s book is a relentlessly analytical exercise in moral theory; the likes of Gide do not appear in what we call “the main text”—and for being beautifully aphoristic. Appropriately—necessarily!—Gide’s axiom is not original to him. Knowingly or not, he repeats the Roman playwright, Terence:

In fact, nothing is said that has not been said before. – Terence, The Eunuch

I was reminded of this by a recent essay on epigraphs in The Walrus, written by Tajja Isen, which sent me looking for predecessors. Everything has been said before…

In 2021, Thomas Swick wrote an article on epigraphs for LitHub, which Isen cites:

The epigraph page is like a ceremonial gate, ushering us i…