Palindromes or Sentences That Read Both Ways

Napoleon’s Palindrome

Able was I ere I saw Elba.

Adam and Eve’s Palindrome

Madam, I’m Adam!

When Charles Grant, Colonial Secretary, was made Lord Glenelg, in 1835, he was called Mr Facing-both-ways, because his title Glenelg was a perfect palindrome, that could be read with the same result from either end.

It was a member of the same family who sought to prove the antiquity of his race by altering an “i” into an “r” in his family Bible, so that the text ran, “there were Grants on the earth in those days.”

A Good Palindrome

“Roma, ibi tibi sedes, ibi tibi amor,” which may be rendered, “At Rome you live, at Rome you love;” is a sentence which reads alike from either end.

A Quaint Palindrome

Eve damned Eden, mad Eve!

This sentence reads alike from either end.

A good specimen of a palindrome is this German saying that can be read from either end:—

Bei Leid lieh stets Heil die Lieb
(In trouble comfort is lent by love.)

Here are some ingenious palindromes, which can be read from either end:—

Repel evil as a live leper.

Dog, as a devil deified, lived as a god.

Do Good’s deeds live never even? Evil’s deeds do O God!

A Schoolboy’s Palindrome

“Subi dura a rudibus”

“I have, endured roughness from the rod” which can be read alike from either end.

Very notable as a long palindrome, even if it is not true record of the great surgeon’s experience, is this quaint sentence:—“Paget saw an Irish tooth, sir, in a waste gap.”

A Peace Palindrome

Snug & raw was I ere I saw war & guns.

This sentence reads alike from either end.

A Palindrome Puzzle

A turning point in every day,
Reversed I do not alter.
One half of me says haste away!
The other bids me falter.—Noon.

Very remarkable for its length and good sense combined is the following palindrome, which can be read from either end with the same result:—“No, it is opposed, art sees trades opposition.”

A Perfect Palindrome

Perhaps the most perfect of English palindromes is the excellent adage—

“Egad, a base tone denotes a bad age.”

Here is the most remarkable Latin palindrome on record:—

SATOR AREPO TENET OPERA ROTAS

Its distinguishing peculiarity is that the first letters of each successive word unite to form the first word, the second letters spell the second word, and so on throughout the five words; and as the whole sentence is a perfect palindrome, this is also true on reversal.