survival of the pithiest?

so high level patterns are the most durable - look at what percent of code is left from even 20 years ago; words from 500 years ago remain and are widely used

"what a tangled web we weave..."

quotes that use powerful imagery to communicate a complex pattern survive and become encapsulated in speech and writing...it is also chance tho which are focused on.  song titles, even meme culture - analyzing the survival of phrases would be really interesting