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Wit is the fetching of congruity out of incongruity. - Joseph Addison Wit is educated insolence. - Aristotle An ounce of wit is worth a pound of sorrow. - Richard Baxter, Of Self-Denial What silly people wits are! [Lat., Que les gens d'esprit sont betes.] - Pierre Auguste Caron de Beaumarchais, Barbier de Seville (I, 1) He who has provoked the lash of wit, cannot complain that he smarts from it. - James Boswell Next to being witty yourself, the best thing is being able to quote another's wit. - Christian Nestell Bovee Wit without employment is a disease. - Robert Burton Aristotle said , , , melancholy men of all others are most witty. - Robert Burton, Anatomy of Melancholy (pt. I, sec. III, memb. 1, subsect. 3) 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. - Samuel Butler (1), Hudibras (pt. I, canto I, l. 45) Great wits and valours, like great states, Do sometimes sink with their own weights. - Samuel Butler (1), Hudibras (pt. II, canto I, l. 269) Do sometimes sink with their own weights. [Lat., Votre espril en donne aux autres.] - Catherine, the Great, Letter to Voltaire Don't put too fine a point to your wit for fear it should get blunted. - Cervantes (Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra), The Little Gypsy I am a fool, I know it; and yet, Heaven help me, I'm poor enough to be a wit. - William 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. - William Cowper, Conversation (l. 303) Wit, now and then, struck smartly, shows a spark. - William Cowper, Table Talk (l. 665) Great wits are sure to madness near allied, And thin partitions do their bounds divide. - John Dryden, Absalom and Achitophel (pt. I, l. 163) Ev'n wit's a burthen, when it talks too long. - John Dryden, Sixth Satire of Juvenal (l. 573) Wit will shine Through the harsh cadence of a rugged line. - John Dryden, To the Memory of Mr. Oldham No dignity, no learning, no force of character, can make any stand against good wit. - Ralph Waldo Emerson Their heads sometimes so little that there is no room for wit; sometimes so long, that there is no wit for so much room. - Thomas Fuller (1), The Holy and Profane States (bk. IV, ch. XII, Of Natural Fools, maxim I) With little wit and ease to suit them, They whirl in narrow circling trails, Like kittens playing with their tails. [Ger., Mit wenig Witz und viel Behagen Dreht jeder sich im engen Zirkeltanz Wie junge Katzen mit dem Schwanz.] - Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Faust (I, 5, 94) As a wit, if not first, in the very first line. - Oliver Goldsmith, Retaliation (l. 96) It is by such encounters that wits come to know each other. [Ger., Les beaux esprits lernen einander durch dergleichen recontre erkennen.] - Andreas Gryphius, Horribilicribfax (act IV, sc. 7) You can pretend to be serious; you can't pretend to be witty. - Sacha Guitry Wit is the salt of conversation, not the food. - William Hazlitt (1), Lectures on the English Comic Writers (lecture 1) Displaying page 1 of 4 for this topic: Next >> [1] 2 3 4
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