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Jesting: Quotations from Cyclopedia of Practical Quotations

A man who could make so vile a pun would not scruple to pick a pocket.— JOHN DENNIS — The Gentleman's Magazine. Vol. LI. P. 324.

He that will lose his friend for a jest, deserves to die a beggar by the bargain.— FULLER — The Holy and Profane States.

Of Jesting. Maxim VII. Jest not with the two-edged sword of God's word.— FULLER — The Holy and Profane States.

Of Jesting. Maxim II. No time to break jests when the heartstrings are about to be broken.— FULLER — The Holy and Profane States.

Of Jesting. Maxim VIII. Less at thine own things laugh; lest in the jest Thy person share, and the conceit advance, Make not thy sport abuses: for the fly That feeds on dung is colored thereby.— HERBERT — Temple. Church Porch. St. 39.

People that make puns are like wanton boys that put coppers on the railroad tracks.— O. W. HOLMES — The Autocrat of the

Breakfast Table. I. Of all the griefs that harass the distress'd, Sure the most bitter is a scornful jest; Fate never wounds more deep the generous heart, Than when a blockhead's insult points the dart.— SAM'L JOHNSON — London. L. 165.

A jest's prosperity lies in the ear Of him that hears it, never in the tongue Of him that makes it.— Shakespeare — Love's Labour's Lost. Act V. Sc. 2. L. 871.

How ill white hairs become a fool and jester! S.— Shakespeare — Henry IV. Pt. II. Act V. Sc. 5. L. 52.

I do not like this fooling.— Shakespeare — Troilus and Cressida. Act V. Sc. 2. L. 102.

Jesters do often prove prophets.— Shakespeare — King Lear. Act V. Sc. 3. L. 71.

It requires a surgical operation to get a joke well into a Scotch understanding.— SYDNEY SMITH — Lady Holland's Memoir. Vol. I. P. 15

A college joke to cure the dumps.— SWIFT — Cassinus and Peter.

Nec lusisse pudet, sed non incidere ludum. The shame is not in having sported, but in not having broken off the sport.— HORACE — Epistolæ. I. 14. 36.

Si quid dictum est per jocum, Non æquum est id te serio prævortier. If anything is spoken in jest, it is not fair to turn it to earnest.— PLAUTUS — Amphitruo. III. 2. 39.

Asperæ facetiæ, ubi nimis ex vero traxere, Acram sui memoriam relinquunt. A bitter jest, when it comes too near the truth, leaves a sharp sting behind it.— TACITUS — Annales. XV. 68.

Diseur de bon mots, mauvais caractère. A jester, a bad character.— PASCAL — Pensées. Art. VI. 22.

La moquerie est souvent une indigence d'esprit. Jesting, often, only proves a want of intellect.— LA BRUYÈRE

Der Spass verliert Alles, wenn der Spassmacher selber lacht. A jest loses its point when the jester laughs himself.— SCHILLER — Fiesco. I. 7.