WIT QUOTES IV

quotations about wit

A fatalistic Irish wit is a famously effective coping mechanism.

JACK MCENENY

"McEneny waiting for words", Albany Times Union, March 11, 2017


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

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

Much Ado About Nothing


Some people seem born with a head in which the thin partition that divides great wit from folly is wanting.

ROBERT SOUTHEY

attributed, Day's Collacon

Tags: Robert Southey


Where judgment has wit to express it, there's the best orator.

WILLIAM PENN

Some Fruits of Solitude

Tags: William Penn


Wit resembles a coquette; those who the most eagerly run after it are the least favored.

JOSEPH CHENIER

attributed, Day's Collacon


Wit appreciates wit.

COELIUS

attributed, Day's Collacon


At our wittes end.

JOHN HEYWOOD

Proverbs

Tags: John Heywood


Great wits, like great beauties, look upon mere esteem as a flat insipid thing; nothing less than admiration will content them.

JEREMIAH SEED

Discourses on Several Important Subjects


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


Wit spares no one.

JEROME USTARIZ

attributed, Day's Collacon


It is as offensive to speak wit in a fool's company, as it would be ill manners to whisper in it; he is displeased at both for the same reason, because he is ignorant of what is said.

ALEXANDER POPE

"Thoughts on Various Subjects"


Wit is Welcome. Timely Wit, Even More So. Show me one person who doesn't like a good laugh and I'll show you a hypocrite.

ROHAN AYYAR

"5 Brands Winning on Social Media -- And What You can Learn From Them", Business 2 Community, January 21, 2016


Wit, like the Belly, if it be not fed,
Will starve the Members, and distract the Head.

DANIEL DEFOE

A Second Volume of the Writings of the Author of The True-born Englishman

Tags: Daniel Defoe


Look, he's winding up the watch of his wit; by and by it will strike.

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

The Tempest

Tags: William Shakespeare


Many would live by their Wits, but break for want of Stock.

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN

Poor Richard's Almanack, 1750

Tags: Benjamin Franklin


The mere wit is only a human bauble. He is to life what bells are to horses--not expected to draw the load, but only to jingle while the horses draw.

HENRY WARD BEECHER

Proverbs from Plymouth Pulpit

Tags: Henry Ward Beecher


Wit is something more than a gymnastic trick of the intellect; true wit implies a beam of thought into the essence of a question, a flash that lights up a situation. Wit suggests the delicate but delightful play of a rapier in the hands of a master.

ARTHUR LYNCH

Moods of Life

Tags: Arthur Lynch


Ev'n wit's a burthen, when it talks too long.

JOHN DRYDEN

Sixth Satire of Juvenal

Tags: John Dryden


His wit is his new bat and the Twitter handle his new pitch.

JAIDEEP GHOSH

"Sachin Tendulkar Seeks Caption For Picture With Virender Sehwag", NDTV, April 5, 2017


Men of superior vivacity and wit, when they take a wrong turn, are generally worse than other men: because wit, consisting in a lively representation of ideas assembled together, gives every sensible object those heightening touches, and that striking imagery, which is unknown to men of slower apprehensions: wit being to sensible objects, what light is to bodies; it does not merely show them as they are in themselves: it gives an adventitious colour, which is not a property inherent in them: it lends them beauties which are not their own.

JEREMIAH SEED

Discourses on Several Important Subjects