WIT QUOTES V

quotations about wit


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His wit is bright, his humour attractive, but both bear the same relation to his serious genius that the mere lambent sheet-lightning playing under the edge of the summer-cloud does to the electric death-spark hid in its womb.

CHARLOTTE BRONTË
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preface, Jane Eyre


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Tags: Charlotte Brontë


Wit in conversation is only a readiness of thought and a facility of expression, or (in the midwives' phrase) a quick conception, and an easy delivery.

ALEXANDER POPE

"Thoughts on Various Subjects"

Tags: Alexander Pope


I think humor is warmer, and wit is colder. Wit is judgment, whereas humor invites some sort of response.

FRAN LEBOWITZ

"In Conversation: Fran Lebowitz with Phong Bui", The Brooklyn Rail, March 4, 2014

Tags: Fran Lebowitz


Wit is the Fruitful Womb where Thoughts conceive.

DANIEL DEFOE

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

Tags: Daniel Defoe


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 good wit ill employed is dangerous in a commonwealth.

DEMOSTHENES

attributed, Day's Collacon


Have you summoned your wits from wool-gathering?

THOMAS MIDDLETON

The Family of Love


Truth, when witty, is the wittiest of all things.

JULIUS CHARLES HARE

Guesses at Truth

Tags: Julius Charles Hare


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

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN

Poor Richard's Almanack, 1750

Tags: Benjamin Franklin


Wit is the capacity to fine-tune to context.

RICHARD COYNE

Mood and Mobility: Navigating the Emotional Spaces of Digital Social Networks


Luckily, wit is contagious.

NICHOLAS CRONK

"Voltaire and the one-liner", Oxford University Press blog, March 10, 2017


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"


Less judgment than wit, is more sail than ballast.

WILLIAM PENN

Fruits of Solitude

Tags: William Penn


A clever wit is always timeless.

KATE WINGFIELD

Metro Weekly, January 14, 2016


Too much wit makes the world rotten.

ALFRED TENNYSON

Idylls of the King

Tags: Alfred, Lord Tennyson


When the drink is in the wit is out.

SONIA SIMS

Belfast Telegraph, January 23, 2016


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


He seemeth to be most ignorant that trusteth most to his wit.

PLATO

attributed, Day's Collacon

Tags: Plato


Quick wit is lauded by friends and foes alike.

TRISTAN HOPPER

National Post, August 17, 2015


There's a hell of a distance between wisecracking and wit. Wit has truth in it; wisecracking is simply calisthenics with words.

DOROTHY PARKER

The Paris Review, summer 1956

Tags: Dorothy Parker