quotations about wit
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
Wit is not only the luck and labour, but also the dexterity of thought, rounding the world, like the Sun, with unimaginable motion; and bringing swiftly home to the memory universal surveys.
WILLIAM DAVENANT
preface, Gondibert
Less judgment than wit, is more sail than ballast.
WILLIAM PENN
Fruits of Solitude
Surprise is so essential an ingredient of wit that no wit will bear repetition.
SYDNEY SMITH
Lectures on Moral Philosophy
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
Your wit's too hot, it speeds too fast, 'twill tire.
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
Love's Labour's Lost
Luckily, wit is contagious.
NICHOLAS CRONK
"Voltaire and the one-liner", Oxford University Press blog, March 10, 2017
Wit is the lightning of the mind.
C. T. KAEUFFER
attributed, Day's Collacon
Wit can render instant aid or lasting harm.
LEWIS F. KORNS
Thoughts
A man cannot please long who has only one kind of wit.
FRANÇOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD
Reflections; or Sentences and Moral Maxims
It is no great advantage to possess a quick wit, if it is not correct; the perfection is not speed but uniformity.
LUC DE CLAPIERS, MARQUIS DE VAUVENARGUES
attributed, Day's Collacon
One wit, like a knuckle of ham in soup, gives a zest and flavour to the dish, but more than one serves only to spoil the pottage.
TOBIAS SMOLLETT
Humphrey Clinker
Wit is brushwood; judgment, timber; the one gives the greatest flame, the other yields the most durable heat; and both meeting make the best fire.
THOMAS OVERBURY
The Miscellaneous Works in Verse and Prose of Sir Thomas Overbury
Super powers? Pah!!! Who needs those? I'm a Scientist and I use my intellect to overcome my opponents and my razors sharp wit is always good for a few cutting put downs perfect for stopping a gloating madman in the middle of an egotistical rant.
DR. SIGMUND FRAUD
user comments posted on 'The Guardian Guide', January 30, 2016
The wit of conversation consists more in finding it in others than in showing a great deal yourself. He who goes from your conversation pleased with himself and his own wit, is perfectly well pleased with you.
SAMUEL R. WELS
How to Behave
Wit catches of wit, as fire of fire.
FULKE GREVILLE
Maxims, Characters, and Reflections
Wit is a form of force that leaves the limbs at rest.
GEORGE ELIOT
Felix Holt
Wit will shine
Through the harsh cadence of a rugged line.
JOHN DRYDEN
To the Memory of Mr. Oldham
Humor wades across a brook, wit jumps over it.
AUSTIN O'MALLEY
Keystones of Thought
Wit is of the true Pierian spring, that can make anything of anything.
GEORGE CHAPMAN
Byron's Conspiracy