“Diploma: Remembrance of things passed”
A jocular definition or “daffynition” was published in The Wall Street Journal on March 29, 1967:
Diploma: Remembrance of things passed.
—Percy Verance.
“Percy Verance” (the word “perseverance”) is probably not a real name. In The Wall Street Journal Book of Wit (1980), the line was credited to “Honey Greer.”
“Remembrance of things passed” is a pun on the title of Marcel Proust’s novel, Remembrance of Things Past.
Wikipedia: In Search of Lost Time
In Search of Lost Time (French: À la recherche du temps perdu) – previously also translated as Remembrance of Things Past, is a novel in seven volumes, written by Marcel Proust (1871–1922). It is considered to be his most prominent work, known both for its length and its theme of involuntary memory, the most famous example being the “episode of the madeleine” which occurs early in the first volume. It gained fame in English in translations by C. K. Scott Moncrieff and Terence Kilmartin as Remembrance of Things Past, but the title In Search of Lost Time, a literal rendering of the French, has gained usage since D. J. Enright adopted it for his revised translation published in 1992.
29 March 1967, The Wall Street Journal (New York, NY), “Pepper…and Salt,” pg. 16, col. 1:
Daffynotion
Diploma: Remembrance of things passed.
—Percy Verance.
30 May 1967, The Gazette (Emporia, KS), “Smiles,” pg. 2, col. 1:
A diploma is used as a remembrance of things passed, muses the Wall Street Journal.
Google Books
The Wall Street Journal Book of Wit:
A 10 Year Treasury of Thousands of Highly Quotable Rhymes, Daffynitions, and Quips
By Charles Preston
Homewood, IL: Dow Jones-Irwin
1980
Pg. ?:
Daffynitions
Diploma: remembrance of things passed. — Honey Greer.
Google Books
The Book of Poisonous Quotes
By Colin Jarman
New York, NY: McGraw-Hill
1993
Pg. 216:
A diploma is a remembrance of things passed.
Honey Greer
Google Books
Mrs. Brower’s Sayings
By Lillian Brower
Xlibris (Xlibris.com)
2016
Pg. ?:
Diploma: Remembrance of things passed.