Wit Quotes:

Wit is a thing capable of proof.

- Agnes Repplier

topic: Proof, Wit, Capable

Wit is as infinite as love, and a deal more lasting in its qualities.

- Agnes Repplier

topic: Quality, Infinite, Wit

One that hath wine as a chain about his wits, such a one lives no life at all.

- Alcaeus

topic: Wine, Chains, Wit

To aspire to be superhuman is a most discreditable admission that you lack the guts, the wit, the moderating judgment to be successfully and consummately human.

- Aldous Huxley

topic: Judgment, Wit, Admission, Superhuman

A poem's life and death dependeth still Not on the poet's wits, but reader's will.

- Alexander Brome

topic: Life And Death, Poet, Wit

I have more zeal than wit.

- Alexander Pope

topic: Wit, Zeal

The life of a wit is a warfare upon earth.

- Alexander Pope

topic: Warfare, Earth, Wit

Wit and judgment often are at strife.

- Alexander Pope

topic: Judgment, Strife, Wit

A wit with dunces, and a dunce with wits.

- Alexander Pope

topic: Sarcastic, Dunces, Wit

Rob Chilson's mordant wit will keep you turning the pages until the wee hours!

- Algis Budrys

topic: Pages, Hours, Wit

It would never do for me to lose my wits in the presence of a man who had none too many of his own.

- Anna Katharine Green

source: Anna Katharine Green (2003). “That Affair Next Door and Lost Man’s Lane”, p.18, Duke University Press

topic: Men, Intelligence, Wit

There is nothing so unready as readiness of wit.

- Antoine Rivarol

topic: Wit, Readiness

Who is't that to woman's beauty would submit, And yet refuse the fetters of their wit?

- Aphra Behn

topic: Wit, Submit, Women's Beauty

Wit is cultured insolence.

- Aristotle

topic: Humor, Insolence, Wit

Wit is well-bred insolence.

- Aristotle

topic: Insolence, Wit, Wells

[On a dull party:] It was a fête worse than death.

- Barbara Stanwyck

topic: Party, Dull, Wit

Raillery is a mode of speaking in favor of one's wit at the expense of one's better nature.

- Baron de Montesquieu

topic: Talking, Favors, Wit

Out of clothes out of countenance, out of countenance out of wit.

- Ben Jonson

topic: Clothes, Wit, Countenance

I lived rough, by my wits, was homeless, lived on the streets, lived on friends' floors, was happy, was miserable.

- Ben Okri

topic: Miserable, Homeless, Wit

He who will lose a present good for one in expectation hath some wit, but a small store of wisdom.

- Bias of Priene

topic: Expectations, Stores, Wit

A hard core life I toast to ex flaw, therefore I live raw and went to war wit the law.

- Big L

topic: War, Law, Wit, Hard Core

I'm sure I'm very difficult to live with because of my make-up and personality.

- Bob Geldof

topic: Personality, Difficult, Wit

And the Prince stared at her like a man out of his wits.

- C. S. Lewis

topic: Men, Wit

My rapier wit hides my inner pain.

- Cassandra Clare

topic: Pain, Humor, Wit

Your wits make others witty.

- Catherine the Great

source: Letter to Voltaire. "Hoyt's New Cyclopedia of Practical Quotations". Book by Kate Loise Roberts, 1922.

topic: Witty, Tongue, Wit

Your wit makes others witty.

- Catherine the Great

topic: Witty, Wit

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

- Charles Lamb

topic: Character, Nerves, Wit

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

- Christian Nestell Bovee

topic: Office, Tendencies, Wit

Wit never appears to greater advantage than when it is successfully exerted to relieve from a dilemma, palliate a deficiency, or cover a retreat.

- Christian Nestell Bovee

topic: Retreat, Advantage, Wit

Wit is better as a seasoning than as a whole dish by itself.

- Christian Nestell Bovee

topic: Dishes, Wit, Seasoning

Evidently, quality of wits is more important than quantity.

- Claudius

source: "Fictional character: Claudius". "I, Claudius". Episode 11: "Fool's Luck", www.imdb.com. November 22, 1976.

topic: Important, Quality, Wit

Wit is the most rascally, contemptible, beggarly thing on the face of the earth.

- Colley Cibber

topic: Earth, Faces, Wit

Wit is the Fruitful Womb where Thoughts conceive.

- Daniel Defoe

topic: Womb, Wit

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

- Daniel Defoe

topic: Feds, Members, Wit

As soon as somebody falls in love, all the wits seem to dribble out of the bottom of his head.

- David Eddings

source: "The Belgariad". Book by David Eddings, 1993.

topic: Falling In Love, Fall, Wit, Dribble

I enjoy my pettiness with a dose of wit.

- David Liss

source: David Liss (2008). “The Whiskey Rebels: A Novel”, p.256, Random House

topic: Enjoy, Wit, Pettiness

You can't teach an old dogma new tricks.

- Dorothy Parker

source: Attributed to Dorothy Parker after her death in Robert E. Drennan "The Algonquin Wits" (p. 124), 1968.

topic: Dogma, Tricks, Wit

Malice blunts the point of wit.

- Douglas William Jerrold

topic: Wit, Malice

Wits, like drunken men with swords, are apt to draw their steel upon their best acquaintances.

- Douglas William Jerrold

topic: Men, Steel, Wit

My dreams are who I'm racin wit but you can see I'm pacin it so that I'm always chasin it.

- Drake

topic: Dream, Humble, Wit, Pacing

The goodness of the true pun is in the direct ratio of its intolerability.

- Edgar Allan Poe

topic: Ratios, Goodness, Wit

Wit is an unexpected explosion of thought.

- Edwin Percy Whipple

topic: Unexpected, Explosions, Wit

What are wits for unless a man uses them?

- Ellis Peters

topic: Men, Use, Wit

So have your wits about you, and do what you can and dig in, because it might not last.

- Ethel Kennedy

source: "'Ethel' review: Extraordinary Kennedy" by David Wiegand, www.sfgate.com. October 15, 2012.

topic: Might, Lasts, Wit

Where there is a will there's a law suit.

- Ethel Mumford

topic: Law, Suits, Wit

The best prophet is common sense, our native wit.

- Euripides

topic: Common Sense, Prophet, Wit

An epigram is the marriage of wit and wisdom; a wisecrack, their divorce.

- Evan Esar

topic: Divorce, Wit, Wit And Wisdom, Epigrams

After wisdom comes wit.

- Evan Esar

topic: Wisdom, Wit

There is naught a man or woman can not learn who hath the wit.

- Frances Hodgson Burnett

topic: Men, Wit, Can Not

The monuments of wit survive the monuments of power.

- Francis Bacon

topic: Science, Power, Wit, Power Of Thought

Sometimes we meet a fool with wit, never one with discretion.

- Francois de La Rochefoucauld

topic: Fool, Sometimes, Wit

The greatest fault of a penetrating wit is to go beyond the mark.

- Francois de La Rochefoucauld

topic: Faults, Mark, Wit

What is perfectly true is perfectly witty.

- Francois de La Rochefoucauld

topic: Witty, Wit

That's what cricket's all about: two batsmen pitting their wits against one another

- Fred Trueman

topic: Two, Cricket, Wit, Cricket Funny

I hold a mouses wit not worth a leke, That hath but on hole for to sterten to.

- Geoffrey Chaucer

topic: Holes, Wit

He is a first-rate collector who can, upon all occasions, collect his wits.

- George D. Prentice

topic: Firsts, Wit, Composure, All Occasions

The wit of a family is usually best received among strangers.

- George Eliot

topic: Stranger, Wit

The troublesome ones in a family are usually either the wits or the idiots.

- George Eliot

topic: Idiot, Wit

The well of true wit is truth itself.

- George Meredith

topic: Thinking, Wit, Wells

Perfect simplicity is unconsciously audacious.

- George Meredith

source: George Meredith (1922). “The Complete Works of George Meredith”, p.383, Library of Alexandria

topic: Perfect, Simplicity, Wit, Audacious

The wit of men compared to that of women is like rouge compared to the rose.

- Germain-Francois Poullain de Saint-Foix

topic: Men, Rose, Wit, Rouge

Because if you've got the wit, you can make anything into a melody, ultimately.

- Gerry Mulligan

topic: Wit, Melody, Mulligans

I mean somebody with the wit and the guts to go and do and create. And, that I believe is what education is all about

- Gordon Pask

topic: Believe, Mean, Wit

He who doesn't lose his wits over certain things has no wits to lose.

- Gotthold Ephraim Lessing

topic: Tongue, Certain, Wit

Christopher Hitchens was a wit, a charmer, and a troublemaker, and to those who knew him well, he was a gift from - dare I say it - God.

- Graydon Carter

source: "Christopher Hitchens, 1949–2011: In Memoriam" by Graydon Carter, www.vanityfair.com. December 2011.

topic: Dare, Wit, Troublemaker, Charmers

He thought he was a wit, and he was half right.

- Henri Arnold Seyrig

topic: Half, Wit

Good-humor will even go so far as often to supply the lack of wit.

- Henry Fielding

topic: Wit, Good Humor

Nothing is so fatiguing as the life of a wit ...

- Hester Lynch Piozzi

topic: Wit

You have been chosen, and you must therefore use such strength and heart and wits as you have.

- J. R. R. Tolkien

topic: Heart, Use, Wit

When someone has the wit to coin a useful phrase, it ought to be acclaimed and broadcast or it will perish.

- Jack Smith

topic: Phrases, Coins, Wit

Of all questions, why? is the least pertinent. It begs the question; it assumes the larger part of its own response; to wit, that a sensible response exists.

- Jack Vance

topic: Assuming, Pertinent, Wit, Pertinent Questions

Universities incline wits to sophistry and affectation.

- Jacques Barzun

topic: Literature, Sophistry, Wit, Incline

Just bring your wits. Sometimes that's the most effective weapon any of us has.

- Jean Ferris

source: Jean Ferris (2013). “Thrice Upon a Marigold”, p.64, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

topic: Weapons, Sometimes, Wit

Wit doesn't make girls pretty.

- Jeanne Calment

topic: Girl, Wit

What's the point of havin' a rapier wit if I can't use it to stab people.

- Jeph Jacques

source: "Questionable Content". Webcomic by Jeph Jacques, Number 1615, www.questionablecontent.net.

topic: People, Use, Wit

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

source: Jeremiah Seed (1763). “Discourses on several important subjects: To which is added, Eight sermons preached at the Lady Moyer's lecture, in the Cathedral Church of St. Paul, London”, p.217

topic: Powerful, Shining, Wit

Borrowed wit is the poorest wit.

- Johann Kaspar Lavater

topic: Imitation, Wit

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

- John Dryden

topic: Long, Wit

One cannot say he wanted wit, but rather that he was frugal of it.

- John Dryden

topic: Wit, Frugal, Wanted

A thing well said will be wit in all languages.

- John Dryden

topic: Language, Well Said, Wit

So many heads so many wits.

- John Heywood

topic: Wit

I have ever thought so superstitiously of wit, that I fear I have committed idolatry against wisdom.

- John Lyly

topic: Wit, Committed, Idolatry

Americans just don't understand dry wit.

- John Oliver

topic: Dry, Wit

A proverb is the wisdom of many and the wit of one.

- John Russell, 1st Earl Russell

topic: Wit

Wit and wisdom differ; wit is upon the sudden turn, wisdom is bringing about ends.

- John Selden

topic: Ends, Wit, Wit And Wisdom

Women ought not to know their own wit, because they will still be showing it, and so spoil it.

- John Selden

topic: Wit, Spoil, Stills

I shall endeavor to enliven morality with wit, and to temper wit with morality.

- Joseph Addison

topic: Morality, Endeavor, Wit

Wit is the fetching of congruity out of incongruity.

- Joseph Addison

topic: Wit, Incongruity

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

- Joseph Chenier

topic: Running, Coquette, Wit

There are some men who are witty when they are in a bad humor, and others only when they are sad.

- Joseph Joubert

topic: Witty, Men, Wit

There is a significant Latin proverb; to wit: Who will guard the guards?

- Josh Billings

topic: Latin, Significant, Wit, Latin Proverb

Vulgarity is no substitute for wit

- Julian Fellowes

source: "Downton Abbey: Series Three. Episode 3". TV Series, 2010 - 2015.

topic: Substitutes, Wit, Vulgarity, Vulgarity Is

Styles in wit change so.

- Lillian Hellman

topic: Style, Wit

For the thinker the world is a thought; for the wit, an image; for the enthusiast, a dream; for the inquirer, truth.

- Ludwig Buchner

topic: Dream, World, Wit, Inquirers

Freedom, where are you? Who holds you back? [...] The mother of wit and pleasure, Oh freedom!

- Manuel Maria Barbosa du Bocage

topic: Mother, Pleasure, Wit

Marriage is the grave or tomb of wit.

- Margaret Cavendish

source: 'Plays' (1662) p. 525

topic: Graves, Wit

Indeed I had not much wit, yet I was not an idiot - my wit was according to my years.

- Margaret Cavendish

source: Margaret Cavendish (2000). “Paper Bodies: A Margaret Cavendish Reader”, p.46, Broadview Press

topic: Years, Idiot, Wit

Beauties are always curious about beauties, and wits about wits.

- Maria Edgeworth

topic: Curious, Wit

wit is often its own worst enemy.

- Maria Edgeworth

topic: Enemy, Wit, Worst

Unhappy is that Grandeur which makes us too great to be good; and that Wit which sets us at a distance from true Wisdom.

- Mary Astell

topic: Distance, Unhappy, Wit, Grandeur, True Wisdom

Wit and humor do not reside in slow minds.

- Miguel de Cervantes

topic: Mind, Wit, Wit And Humor

Genuine wit implies no small amount of wisdom and culture.

- Moses Harvey

topic: Culture, Genuine, Wit, Small Amounts

Insanity destroys reason, but not wit.

- Nathanael Emmons

topic: Insanity, Reason, Wit, Insanity And Sanity, Madness And Insanity

Anyway Ri Ri what rhymes wit your name really? Money got you vacationing in Chile

- Nicki Minaj

topic: Money, Names, Wit, Chile

It is inconceivable how much wit it requires to avoid being ridiculous.

- Nicolas Chamfort

topic: Ridiculous, Wit

A fool who has a flash of wit creates astonishment and scandal, like hack-horses setting out to gallop.

- Nicolas Chamfort

topic: Fool, Wit, Hacks

Wealth can be created. Wit and intelligence can't.

- Nicole Williams

source: Nicole Williams (2012). “Crash”, p.179, Simon and Schuster

topic: Wealth, Wit

Sarcasm is the lowest form of wit.

- Oscar Wilde

topic: Sarcasm, Form, Wit, Valkyrie Cain

Quotation is a serviceable substitute for wit.

- Oscar Wilde

topic: Inspirational, Substitutes, Wit

I refuse to have a battle of wits with an unarmed man.

- Oscar Wilde

topic: Men, Battle, Wit, Battle Of Wits, Unarmed

nothing is so pleasant ... as to display your worldly wisdom in epigram and dissertation, but it is a trifle tedious to hear another person display theirs.

- Ouida

topic: Wit, Trifles, Bores, Worldly Wisdom, Epigrams

Wit penetrates; humor envelops. Wit is a function of verbal intelligence; humor is imagination operating on good nature.

- Peggy Noonan

topic: Imagination, Function, Wit

Our erected wit maketh us to know what perfection is.

- Philip Sidney

topic: Perfection, Wit

A man's reception depends upon his coat; his dismissal upon the wit he shows.

- Pierre-Jean de Beranger

topic: Society, Wit, Reception, Dismissal

[The Cretans have] more wit than words.

- Plato

topic: Character, Wit

Digression is the soul of wit.

- Ray Bradbury

topic: Soul, Wit

I am madness maddened when it comes to books, writers, and the great granary silos where their wits are stored.

- Ray Bradbury

topic: Book, Madness, Wit

Wit loses its point when dipped in malice.

- Richard Brinsley Sheridan

topic: Wit, Malice

Humor is the pensiveness of wit.

- Robert Aris Willmott

topic: Humor, Wit

Wits and swords are as straws against the wisdom of the Darkness...

- Robert E. Howard

topic: Darkness, Wit

What a measly epitaph that would make: 'They saw it coming, but hadn't the wit to stop it happening.'

- Sara Parkin

topic: Saws, Wit, Epitaph

I am shocked and slightly perturbed by his exuberance and quick wit. Knock Knock Channel 4

- Scott Capurro

topic: Wit, Exuberance, Quick Wit

It is having in some measure a sort of wit to know how to use the wit of others.

- Stanisław I Leszczyński

source: duc de François La Rochefoucauld, François La Rochefoucauld (duc de), King of Poland Stanisław, Stanisław I Leszczyński (King of Poland) (1851). “Moral reflections, sentences and maxims of Francis, duc de la Rochefoucauld”, p.173

topic: Wit

It is often a sign of wit not to show it, and not to see that others want it.

- Suzanne Curchod

topic: Want, Wit, Shows

[On being asked in her later years if she were Tallulah:] I'm what's left of her, dahling.

- Tallulah Bankhead

topic: Years, Age, Wit

When the wine is in, the wit is out.

- Thomas Becon

source: 'Catechism' (ed. J. Ayre, 1844) p. 375

topic: Drinking, Wine, Wit, Wine And Age, Alcohol And Life

Wit thou well that I will not live long after thy days.

- Thomas Malory

source: Sir Thomas Malory (1968). “King Arthur and His Knights: Selected Tales”

topic: Mistake, Long, Wit

Necessity can sharpen the wits even of children.

- Timothy Dwight V

topic: Children, Wit

Irreverence is easy - whats hard is wit.

- Tom Lehrer

source: "Rhino Records" Online Chat, June 17, 1997.

topic: Irreverence, Easy, Wit

Surely we have the wit and will to develop economically without despoiling the very environment we depend upon

- Tony Blair

topic: Environment, Wit

To be happy with human beings, we should not ask them for what they cannot give.

- Tristan Bernard

topic: Giving, Should, Wit

Puns are the droppings of soaring wits.

- Victor Hugo

topic: Dropping, Wit, Pun

True wit, to every man, is that which falls on another.

- Walter Savage Landor

topic: Fall, Men, Wit

Any woman who is sure of her own wits, is a match, at any time, for a man who is not sure of his own temper.

- Wilkie Collins

source: Wilkie Collins (2008). “The Woman in White”, p.396, ReadHowYouWant.com

topic: Men, Self Control, Wit

As empty vessels make the loudest sound, so they that have the least wit are the greatest blabbers

- William Baldwin

topic: Sound, Empty, Wit, Empty Vessels

Wit must be foiled by wit: cut a diamond with a diamond.

- William Congreve

source: William Congreve (1797). “The Double Dealer: A Comedy”, p.22

topic: Cutting, Jewelry, Wit, Diamond Rings

Manner is all in all, whate'er is writ,The substitute for genius, sense, and wit.

- William Cowper

topic: Genius, Substitutes, Wit

Humor is wit and love.

- William Makepeace Thackeray

topic: Humor, And Love, Wit

There's many a man has more hair than wit.

- William Shakespeare

topic: Men, Hair, Wit

The dullness of the fool is the whetstone of the wits.

- William Shakespeare

topic: Fool, Wit, Dullness

It seems with wit and good-nature, Utrum horum mavis accipe. Taste and good-nature are universally connected.

- William Shenstone

topic: Taste, Wit, Good Nature

Wit has as few true judges as painting.

- William Wycherley

topic: Judging, Painting, Wit

As wit is too hard for power in council, so power is too hard for wit in action.

- William Wycherley

topic: Action, Wit, Council

Never engage in a battle of wits with an unarmed man.

- Winston Churchill

topic: Men, Battle, Wit, Battle Of Wits

Humor wades across a brook, wit jumps over it.

- Austin O'Malley

topic: Wade, Brooks, Wit

I think Hamlet is a very funny play - Hamlet is riddled with wit.

- Chukwudi Iwuji

source: Interview with Emma Brown, www.interviewmagazine.com. September 27, 2016.

topic: Thinking, Play, Wit

No charm, no humor, no wit -- and a personality which can only be described as 'icky.' .

- Conan O'Brien

topic: Personality, Charm, Wit

True wit is everlasting, like the sun; describing all men, but described by none.

- George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham

topic: Men, Sun, Wit

The more wit we have, the less satisfied we are with it.

- Jean le Rond d'Alembert

topic: Wit, Satisfied

Wit is a dangerous talent in friendship.

- Ninon de L'Enclos

topic: Talent, Dangerous, Wit

Wit is the unexpected copulation of ideas.

- Patrick O'Brian

topic: Ideas, Unexpected, Wit

Intemperate wits will spare neither friend nor foe, and make themselves the common enemies of mankind.

- Roger L'Estrange

topic: Enemy, Common, Wit, Common Enemy

If brevity is the soul of wit then brevity and levity are the whole of it.

- Michael R. Burch

topic: Soul, Levity, Wit

There is no such whetstone, to sharpen a good wit and encourage a will to learning, as is praise.

- Roger Ascham

source: 'The Schoolmaster' (1570) bk. 1

topic: Teaching, Praise, Wit, Sharpening

Humor is the truth; wit is an exaggeration of the truth.

- Stan Laurel

topic: Wit, Exaggeration

Upon meeting, you're judged by your clothes, upon parting you're judged by your wits.

- Leo Tolstoy

topic: Clothes, Wit, Meetings

No one is satisfied with his position, but every one is satisfied with his wit

- Leo Tolstoy

source: Leo Tolstoy (2016). “ANNA KARENINA – Two Unabridged Translations in One Premium Edition (World Classics Series): The Greatest Romantic Tragedy of All Times from the Renowned Author of War and Peace & The Death of Ivan Ilyich (Including Biographies of the Author)”, p.226, e-artnow

topic: Wit, Satisfied, Position

Reply to wit with gravity, and to gravity with wit.

- Charles Caleb Colton

topic: Gravity, Wit

Scattered wits take a long time in picking up.

- Charles Dickens

source: Charles Dickens, Jill Kriegel (2010). “Great Expectations: With an Introduction and Contemporary Criticism”, p.173, Ignatius Press

topic: Long, Wit, Long Time

to the many, witticisms not only require to be explained, like riddles, but are also like new shoes, which people require to wear many times before they get accustomed to them.

- Letitia Elizabeth Landon

source: Letitia Elizabeth Landon (1860). “The Complete Works of L.E. Landon”, p.366

topic: New Shoes, People, Wit

Mockery is often the result of a poverty of wit.

- Jean de la Bruyere

topic: Poverty, Results, Wit

I never have wit until I am below stairs. [Fr., Je n'ai jamais d'esprit qu'au bas de l'escalier.]

- Jean de la Bruyere

topic: Stairs, Wit

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

- Fran Lebowitz

source: Interview with Phong Bui, brooklynrail.org. March 4, 2014.

topic: Thinking, Judgment, Wit

Things are bound to begin happening if you've got your wits about you. You create the lucky accidents.

- Lewis Thomas

topic: Lucky, Wit, Accidents

The genius, wit, and the spirit of a nation are discovered by their proverbs.

- Francis Bacon

topic: Genius, Spirit, Wit

When a doubt is once received, men labour rather how to keep it a doubt still, than how to solve it; and accordingly bend their wits.

- Francis Bacon

source: Francis Bacon, Robert Leslie Ellis, William Rawley (1861). “The philosophical works of Francis Bacon, with prefaces and notes by the late Robert Leslie Ellis, together with English translations of the principal Latin pieces”, p.364

topic: Men, Doubt, Wit

If we had time and no money, living by our wits, what story would you tell?

- Adrienne Rich

topic: Stories, Wit, No Money

Wit can be beautiful, because it expresses and distills an idea.

- Stephen Fry

topic: Beautiful, Ideas, Wit

Idiots and lunatics see only their own wit.

- Francois de La Rochefoucauld

topic: Idiot, Wit

Wit sometimes enables us to act rudely with impunity.

- Francois de La Rochefoucauld

topic: Sometimes, Wit, Impunity

Wit is the flower of the imagination.

- Livy

topic: Flower, Imagination, Wit

A joker is near akin to a buffoon; and neither of them is the least related to wit.

- Lord Chesterfield

source: Lord Chesterfield, David Roberts (2008). “Lord Chesterfield's Letters”, p.141, Oxford University Press

topic: Wit, Related, Buffoons

Profundity easily turns into dullness and astuteness deteriorates into wit. Be guided by natural common sense and it will accommodate great and small.

- Franz Grillparzer

topic: Common Sense, Natural, Wit, Dullness, Profundity

I love Tom Cruise. When Penelope Cruz is through with him, I'm next.

- Christina Aguilera

topic: Next, Cruise, Wit

The character of false wit is that of appearing to depend only upon reason.

- Luc de Clapiers

topic: Character, Reason, Wit

Wit does not take the place of knowledge.

- Luc de Clapiers

topic: Doe, Wit

He who seeks intelligence lacks intelligence.

- Friedrich Nietzsche

topic: Spirit, Wit

The wittiest authors evoke a barely perceptible smile.

- Friedrich Nietzsche

topic: Evoke, Wit, Wittiest

Wit catches of wit, as fire of fire.

- Fulke Greville, 1st Baron Brooke

topic: Fire, Wit

Authors are partial to their wit, 'tis true, But are not critics to their judgment, too?

- Alexander Pope

source: Alexander Pope (1825). “The Poetical Works of Alexander Pope: With a Sketch of the Author's Life”, p.49

topic: Judgment, Wit, Critics

The essay must be artistically rendered: You must keep the reader engaged, whether with wit, conflict, mischief, and/or yes, with honesty.

- Phillip Lopate

source: Source: www.psychologytoday.com

topic: Honesty, Conflict, Wit

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

- Plato

topic: Ignorant, Wit

Drunkenness is the very sepulcher Of man's wit and his discretion.

- Geoffrey Chaucer

topic: Men, Wit, Drunkenness

Let each man have the wit to go his own way.

- Propertius

source: Sextus Propertius (2015). “Delphi Complete Works of Propertius (Illustrated)”, p.76, Delphi Classics

topic: Men, Way, Wit

As the sea-crab swimmeth always against the stream, so doth wit always against wisdom.

- Pythagoras

topic: Sea, Crabs, Wit

A man must keep his earnestness nimble, to escape ridicule.

- D. H. Lawrence

source: D.H. Lawrence (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of D.H. Lawrence (Illustrated)”, p.8848, Delphi Classics

topic: Men, Nimble, Wit

Wit, to be well defined, must be defined by wit itself; then it will be worth listening to.

- Johann Georg Ritter von Zimmermann

topic: Listening, Wit, Wells

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

- George Herbert

source: George Herbert, Christopher Harvey, George Gilfillan (1857). “The poetical works of George Herbert”, p.11

topic: Fool, Hours, Wit

The Germans wit is in his fingers.

- George Herbert

source: George Herbert (1871). “The English poems of George Herbert, together with his collection of proverbs entitled Jacula prudentum”, p.222

topic: Fingers, Wit

Where the drink goes in, there the wit goes out.

- George Herbert

source: George Herbert (1871). “The English Poems of George Herbert: Together with His Collection of Proverbs Entitled Jacula Prudentum”, p.227

topic: Drink, Wit

Wit lives in the present, but genius survives the future.

- Marguerite Gardiner, Countess of Blessington

source: Marguerite Countess of Blessington, Marguerite GARDINER (Countess of Blessington.) (1839). “Desultory Thoughts and Reflections”, p.104

topic: Genius, Live In The Present, Wit

The more wit the less courage.

- Thomas Fuller

topic: Courage, Wit

I do not like to employ secretaries that have more wit than myself. I am afraid to make them write all my nonsense.

- Marie de Rabutin-Chantal, marquise de Sevigne

topic: Writing, Nonsense, Wit

For every grain of wit there is a grain of folly.

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

source: Ralph Waldo Emerson (1983). “Essays and Lectures”, p.287, Library of America

topic: Wit, Grain, Folly

Of all wit's uses, the main one is to live well with who has none.

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

source: Ralph Waldo Emerson (1872). “The Prose Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson: Representative men. English traits. Conduct of life”, p.445

topic: Use, Wit, Live Well

The finest wits have their sediment.

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

source: Ralph Waldo Emerson (1866). “The Complete Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson: Comprising His Essays, Lectures, Poems, and Orations”, p.414

topic: Finest, Wit

True wit never made us laugh.

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

source: Ralph Waldo Emerson (1875). “Letters and Social Aims”, p.81

topic: Laughing, Made, Wit

Great wits are sure to madness near allied, and thin partitions do their bounds divide.

- John Dryden

source: 'Absalom and Achitophel' (1681) pt. 1, l. 150

topic: Literature, Madness, Wit, Genius And Madness, Partition

Nor sequent centuries could hitOrbit and sum of Shakespeare's wit.

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

source: Ralph Waldo Emerson (2007). “Poems”, p.228, Cosimo, Inc.

topic: Century, Wit

Wit is a sword; it is meant to make people feel the point as well as see it.

- Gilbert K. Chesterton

source: "Fool’s Talk - The Kinship of Wit and Wisdom" by Kevin Belmonte, www.huffingtonpost.com. June 24, 2015.

topic: People, Wit, Wells