WIT QUOTES V

quotations about wit

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


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


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


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

JOHN DRYDEN

Sixth Satire of Juvenal

Tags: John Dryden


Too much wit makes the world rotten.

ALFRED TENNYSON

Idylls of the King

Tags: Alfred, Lord Tennyson


Wit is well-bred insolence.

ARISTOTLE

Rhetoric

Tags: Aristotle


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


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

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

The Tempest

Tags: William Shakespeare


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


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


A clever wit is always timeless.

KATE WINGFIELD

Metro Weekly, January 14, 2016


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

preface, Jane Eyre

Tags: Charlotte Brontë


Wit, like poetry, is insusceptible of being constructed upon rules founded merely in reason. Like faith, it exists independent of reason, and sometimes in hostility to it.

CHRISTIAN NESTELL BOVEE

Intuitions and Summaries of Thought

Tags: Christian Nestell Bovee


Reader, if you are gifted with nerves like mine, aspire to any character but that of a wit.

CHARLES LAMB

"Confessions of a Drunkard", The Last Essays of Elia

Tags: Charles Lamb


A good wit ill employed is dangerous in a commonwealth.

DEMOSTHENES

attributed, Day's Collacon


Quick wit is lauded by friends and foes alike.

TRISTAN HOPPER

National Post, August 17, 2015


Many, affecting wit beyond their power,
Have got to be a dear fool for an hour.

GEORGE HERBERT

The Temple

Tags: George Herbert


Wit, after all, is a mighty tart, pungent ingredient, and much too acid for some stomachs; but honest good humor is the oil and wine of a merry meeting.

WASHINGTON IRVING

"The Christmas Dinner", Irving's Sketch Book

Tags: Washington Irving


A Christian's wit is inoffensive light,
A beam that aids, but never grieves the sight.

WILLIAM COWPER

"Conversation", Poems

Tags: William Cowper