Wit Quotes

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

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

Less judgment than wit is more sail than ballast.

He who has provoked the shaft of wit, cannot complain that he smarts from it.

Alan Ginsberg was fabulous. The man is so filled with energy. He's 65 years old and he's just loaded with energy and charm and wit and his mind is constantly racing.

Men are most apt to believe what they least understand; and through the lust of human wit obscure things are more easily credited.

[The Cretans have] more wit than words.

I definitely did look up to John. We all looked up to John. He was older and he was very much the leader; he was the quickest wit and the smartest.

Genuine and innocent wit is surely the very flavor of the mind.

The impromptu reply is precisely the touchstone of the man of wit.

One science only will one genius fit; so vast is art, so narrow human wit.

Make the doors upon a woman's wit, and it will out at the casement; shut that, and 'twill out at the key-hole; stop that, 'twill fly with the smoke out at the chimney.

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

A wit with dunces, and a dunce with wits.

Evidently, quality of wits is more important than quantity.

Some brains are barren grounds, that will not bring seed or fruit forth, unless they are well manured with the old wit which is raked from other writers and speakers.

Society develops wit, but its contemplation alone forms genius.

In the midst of the fountain of wit there arises something bitter, which stings in the very flowers.

It is of no use to possess a lively wit if it is not of the right proportion: the perfection of a clock is not to go fast, but to be accurate.

Of Manners gentle, of Affections mild; In Wit a man; Simplicity, a child.

The Cardinal is at his wit's end - it is true that he had not far to go.

A man must have a good share of wit himself to endure a great share in another.

I assure you, you will never survive on your wits alone.

Wit is often a mask. If you tear it you will find either genius irritated or cleverness juggling.

And new Philosophy calls all in doubt, the element of fire is quite put out; the Sun is lost, and the earth, and no mans wit can well direct him where to look for it.

Wit is the appearance, the external flash, of fantasy. Hence its divinity and the similarity to the wit of mysticism.

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

Reason is mechanical, wit chemical, and genius organic spirit.

The younger brother hath the more wit.

A little wit and a great deal of ill-nature will furnish a man for satire; but the greatest instance of wit is to commend well.

Brevity may be the soul of wit, but not when someone's saying "I love you.

Cunning is only the mimic of discretion, and may pass upon weak men in the same manner as vivacity is often mistaken for wit, and gravity for wisdom.

Religion supposed Heaven and Hell, the word of God, and sacraments, and twenty other circumstances which, taken seriously, are a wonderful check to wit and humour.

There is a monsterous deal of stupid quizzing, & common-place nonsense talked, but scarcely any wit.

When a man in a forest thinks he is going forward in a straight line, in reality he is going in a circle, I did my best to go in a circle, hoping to go in a straight line.

A man often runs the risk of throwing away a witticism if he admits that it is his own.

The distrust of wit is the beginning of tyranny.

When men have come to the edge of a precipice, it is the lover of life who has the spirit to leap backwards, and only the pessimist who continues to believe in progress.

In less than a year, the Bush administration will strut out of office, leaving the country in roughly the same condition a toddler leaves a diaper.

When you have wit of your own, it's a pleasure to credit other people for theirs.

The rich can buy everything but health, virtue, friendship, wit, good looks, love, pride, intelligence, grace, and, if you need it, happiness.

There is small disproportion betwixt a fool who useth not wit because he hath it not and him that useth it not when it should avail him.

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

I go through stages. Randomly, I'll be attracted to a crazy rocker with tattoos. And I find that I'm extremely attracted to ambition and wit.

There are some people as obtuse in recognizing an argument as they are in appreciating wit. You couldn't drive it into their heads with a hammer.

Malice blunts the point of wit.

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

Wit has as few true judges as painting.

From Lucifer to Jerry Sneak there is not an aspect of evil, imperfection, and littleness which can elude the lights of humor or the lightning of wit.

I have no great quickness of apprehension or wit which is so remarkable in some clever men, for instance Huxley