WIT QUOTES II

quotations about wit

A sentence is but a cheveril glove to a good wit;
How quickly the wrong side may be turned outward!

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

Twelfth Night


A man of remarkable genius may afford to pass by a piece of wit, if it happen to border on abuse. A little genius is obliged to catch at every witticism indiscriminately.

WILLIAM SHENSTONE

Essays on Men and Manners


This is that gross sort of raillery, which is so offensive in good company. And indeed there is as much difference between one sort and another, as between fair-dealing and hypocrisy; or between the genteelest wit, and the most scurrilous buffoonery. But by the freedom of conversation this illiberal kind of wit will lose its credit. For wit is its own remedy. Liberty and commerce bring it to its true standard.

ANTHONY ASHLEY COOPER, EARL OF SHAFTESBURY

Characteristicks of Men, Manners, Opinions, Times, Volume 1


The monuments of wit survive the monuments of power.

FRANCIS BACON

Essex's Device

Tags: Francis Bacon


Wit is usually thought rude by its victims.

GARY TAYLOR

Moment by Moment by Shakespeare


We take life too seriously: the office of wit is to correct this tendency.

CHRISTIAN NESTELL BOVEE

Intuitions and Summaries of Thought


Those who object to wit are envious of it.

WILLIAM HAZLITT

Characteristics: in the manner of Rochefoucault's Maxims

Tags: William Hazlitt


She had a pretty gift for quotation, which is a serviceable substitute for wit.

W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM

"The Creative Impulse", Collected Short Stories

Tags: W. Somerset Maugham


Some of the wit is clumsy and coarse. But sometimes it takes a blunt instrument to make a point.

DAVID PARKINSON

"Catfight Review", Empire Online, March 10, 2017


Wit is folly, unless a wise man has the keeping of it.

ENGLISH PROVERB

Tags: English proverbs


The effect of wit is sometimes so sudden that it almost amounts to a concussion, and most generally excites a disposition to laughter.

HORACE PETERS BIDDLE

A Few Poems


The distrust of wit is the beginning of tyranny.

EDWARD ABBEY

A Voice Crying in the Wilderness

Tags: Edward Abbey


When you have wit of your own, it's a pleasure to credit other people for theirs.

CRISS JAMI

Killosophy


He depended on his mother wit to get him out of any scrape his father ignorance got him into.

STRICKLAND GILLILAN

attributed, 20,000 Quips & Quotes


Let your wit rather serve you for a buckler to defend yourself, by a handsome reply, than the sword to wound others, though with ever so facetious reproach; remembering that a word cuts deeper than a sharper weapon, and the wound it makes is longer curing.

FRANCIS OSBORNE

Advice to a Son


True Wit is Nature to advantage dress'd
What oft was thought, but ne'er so well express'd.

ALEXANDER POPE

An Essay on Criticism

Tags: Alexander Pope


I am not only witty in myself, but the cause that wit is in other men.

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

Henry IV, Part II


We find ourselves less witty in remembering what we have said than in dreaming of what we would have said.

JEAN PETIT

attributed, Day's Collacon


That wit is truly amiable, which gladdens and enlivens every thing, which shines with a lustre gentle, but not faint, and powerful, but not glaring.

JEREMIAH SEED

Discourses on Several Important Subjects


Thy wit is as quick as the greyhound's mouth; it catches.

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

Much Ado About Nothing