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Wit: Quotations from Cyclopedia of Practical Quotations
I've often wished that I had clear, For life, six hundred pounds a year, A handsome house to lodge a friend, A river at my garden's end, A terrace walk, and half a rood Of land, set out to plant a wood.— SWIFT — Imitation of Horace. Bk. II.
Satire 6. Like our shadows, Our wishes lengthen as our sun declines.— YOUNG — Night Thoughts. Night V. L. 661.
He must be a dull Fellow indeed, whom neither Love, Malice, nor Necessity, can inspire with Wit.— DE LA BRUYÈRE — The Characters or
Manners of the Present Age. Ch. IV. Aristotle said * * * melancholy men of all others are most witty.— BURTON — Anatomy of Melancholy. Pt. I. Sec. 3. Memb. 1.
Subsect. 3. Great wits and valours, like great states, Do sometimes sink with their own weights.— BUTLER — Hudibras. Pt. II. Canto I. L. 269.
We grant, although he had much wit, H' was very shy of using it, As being loth to wear it out, And therefore bore it not about; Unless on holy days or so, As men their best apparel do.— BUTLER — Hudibras. Pt. I. Canto I. L. 45.
Good wits will jump.— BUCKINGHAM — The Chances. Act IV. Sc. 1. JOHN BYROM-The Winners. L. 39. CERVANTES-Don Quixote. Pt. II. Ch. XXXVIII.
LAURENCE STERNE-Tristram Shandy. Don't put too fine a point to your wit for fear it should get blunted. S.— CERVANTES — The Little Gypsy.
I am a fool, I know it; and yet, Heaven help me, I'm poor enough to be a wit.— CONGREVE — Love for Love. Act I. Sc. 1.
His wit invites you by his looks to come, But when you knock, it never is at home.— COWPER — Conversation. L. 303.
Wit, now and then, struck smartly, shows a spark.— COWPER — Table Talk. L. 665.
Ev'n wit's a burthen, when it talks too long.— DRYDEN — Sixth Satire of Juvenal. L. 573.
Great wits are sure to madness near allied, And thin partitions do their bounds divide.— DRYDEN — Absalom and Achitophel. Pt. I. L. 163.
Wit will shine Through the harsh cadence of a rugged line.— DRYDEN — To the Memory of Mr. Oldham. L. 15.
Their heads sometimes so little that there is no room for wit; sometimes so long, that there is no wit for so much room. C.— FULLER — The Holy and Profane States. Bk. IV. Ch. XII. Of Natural Fools.
Maxim I. As a wit, if not first, in the very first line.— GOLDSMITH — Retaliation. L. 96.
Wit is the salt of conversation, not the food.— HAZLITT — Lectures on the English
Comic Writers. Lecture I. Wit's an unruly engine, wildly striking Sometimes a friend, sometimes the engineer : Hast thou the knack? pamper it not with liking; But if thou want it, buy it not too deare. Many affecting wit beyond their power, Have got to be a deare fool for an houre.— HERBERT — The Temple. The Church Porch. St. 41.
Wit, like money, bears an extra value when rung down immediately it is wanted. Men pay severely who require credit.— DOUGLAS JERROLD — Specimens of
Jerrold's Wit. Wit. Wit. This man [Chesterfield] I thought had been a lord among wits; but I find he is only a wit among lords.— SAM'L JOHNSON — Boswell's Life of
Johnson. 1754. A man does not please long when he has only one species of wit.— LA ROCHEFOUCAULD — Maxims. No. 438.
A small degree of wit, accompanied by good sense, is less tiresome in the long run than a great amount of wit without it.— LA ROCHEFOUCAULD — Maxims. No. 529.
And one may say that his wit shines at the expense of his memory.— ALAIN RENÉ LE SAGE — Gil Blas. Bk. III. Ch. XI.
Wit is the flower of the imagination.
A wit with dunces, and a dunce with wits.— POPE — Dunciad. Bk. IV. L. 92.
For wit and judgment often are at strife, Though meant each other's aid, like man and wife.— POPE — Essay on Criticism. L. 82.
How the wit brightens! how the style refines !— POPE — Essay on Criticism. L. 421.
If faith itself has different dresses worn, What wonder modes in wit should take their turn?— POPE — Essay on Criticism. L. 446.
So modest plainness sets off sprightly wit, For works may have more wit than does 'em good, As bodies perish through excess of blood.— POPE — Essay on Criticism. L. 302.
True wit is nature to advantage dress'd, What oft was thought, but ne'er so well expressed.— POPE — Essay on Criticism. Pt. II. L. 97.
You beat your pate, and fancy wit will come; Knock as you please, there's nobody at home.— POPE — Epigram.
Fine wits destroy themselves with their own plots, in meddling with great affairs of state.— JOHN SELDEN — Table Talk. Wit.
A good old man, sir: he will be talking, as they say, When the age is in, the wit is out.— Shakespeare — Much Ado About Nothing. Act III. Sc. 5. L. 36.
Great men may jest with saints; 'tis wit in them; But, in the less, foul profanation. X.— Shakespeare — Measure for Measure. Act II. Sc. 2. L. 127.
He doth, indeed, show some sparks that are like wit. Y.— Shakespeare — Much Ado About Nothing. Act II. Sc. 3. L. 193.
His eye begets occasion for his wit; For every object that the one doth catch, The other turns to a mirth-moving jest.— Shakespeare — Love's Labour's Lost. Act II. Sc. 1. L. 69.
I am not only witty in myself, but the cause that wit is in other men.— Shakespeare — Henry IV. Pt. II. Act I. Sc. 2. L. 11.
Look, he's winding up the watch of his wit; by and by it will strike.— Shakespeare — Tempest. Act II. Sc. 1. L. 12.
Make the doors upon a woman's wit and it will out at the casement; shut that and 'twill out at the key-hole; stop that, 'twill fly with the smoke out at the chimney.— Shakespeare — As You Like It Act IV. Sc. 1. L. 162.
Rudeness is a sauce to his good wit, Which gives men stomach to digest his words, With better appetite. Julius Cæsar. Act I. Sc. 2. L. 304. Since brevity is the soul of wit, And tediousness the limbs and outward flourishes, I will be brief.— Shakespeare — Hamlet. Act II. Sc. 2. L. 90.
Sir, your wit ambles well; it goes easily.— Shakespeare — Much Ado About Nothing. Act V. Sc. 1. L. 159.
They have a plentiful lack of wit.— Shakespeare — Hamlet. Act II. Sc. 2. L. 201.
Those wits that think they have thee, do very oft prove fools; and I, that am sure I lack thee, may pass for a wise man; for what says Quinapalus? "Better a witty fool than a foolish wit."— Shakespeare — Twelfth Night. Act I. Sc. 5. L. 37.
Thy wit is as quick as the greyhound's mouth; it catches.— Shakespeare — Much Ado About Nothing. Act V. Sc. 2. L. 11.
To leave this keen encounter of our wits, And fall somewhat into a slower method.— Shakespeare — Richard III. Act I. Sc. 2. L. 115.
Man could direct his ways by plain reason, and support his life by tasteless food; but God has given us wit, and flavour, and brightness, and laughter, and perfumers, to enliven the days of man's pilgrimage, and to "charm his pained steps over the burning marle."— SYDNEY SMITH — Dangers and
Advantages of Wit. One wit, like a knuckle of ham in soup, gives a zest and flavour to the dish, but more than one serves only to spoil the pottage.— SMOLLETT — Humphrey Clinker.
Wit consists in knowing the resemblance of things which differ, and the difference of things which are alike.— MADAME DE STAEL — Germany. Pt. III. Ch. VIII.
It is having in some measure a sort of wit to know how to use the wit of others. STANISLAUS (King of Poland)-Maxims and Moral Sentences. Though I am young, I scorn to flit On the wings of borrowed wit.— GEORGE WITHER — The Shepherd's
Hunting. Against their wills what numbers ruin shun, Purely through want of wit to be undone! Nature has shown by making it so rare, That wit's a jewel which we need not wear.— YOUNG — Epistle to Mr. Pope. Ep. II. L. 80.
La raillerie est un discours en faveur de son esprit contre son bon naturel. Raillery is a mode of speaking in favor of one's wit at the expense of one's better nature.— MONTESQUIEU — Pensées Diverses.
L'impromptu est justement la pierre de touche de l'esprit. Repartee is precisely the touchstone of the man of wit.— MOLIÈRE — Les Précieuses Ridicules. X.
On peut dire que son esprit brille aux dépens de sa mémoire. One may say that his wit shines at the expense of his memory.— LE SAGE — Gil Blas. III. XI.
Que les gens d'esprit sont bêtes. What silly people wits are!— BEAUMARCHAIS — Barbier de Séville.
I. 1. Mit wenig Witz und viel Behagen Dreht jeder sich im engen Zirkeltanz Wie junge Katzen mit dem Schwanz. With little wit and ease to suit them, They whirl in narrow circling trails, Like kittens playing with their tails.— GOETHE — Faust. I. 5. 94.