Wit

"For when the wine is in, the wit is out."

"WIT, n. The salt with which the American humorist spoils his intellectual cookery by leaving it out."

"WITTICISM, n. A sharp and clever remark, usually quoted, and seldom noted; what the Philistine is pleased to call a "joke.""

"Essere la natura de' motti cotale, che essi come la pecora morde deono cosi mordere l'uditore, e non come 'l cane: percio che, se come cane mordesse il motto, non sarebbe motto, ma villania."

"Aristotle said * * * melancholy men of all others are most witty."

"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."

"Great wits and valours, like great states, Do sometimes sink with their own weights."

"His wit invites you by his looks to come, But when you knock, it never is at home."

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

"Their heads sometimes so little that there is no room for wit; sometimes so long, that there is no wit for so much room."

"As a wit, if not first, in the very first line."

"Wit's an unruly engine, wildly striking Sometimes a friend, sometimes the engineer: Hast thou the knack? pamper it not with liking; But if thou want it, buy it not too deare Many affecting wit beyond their power, Have got to be a deare fool for an houre."

"This man [Chesterfield] I thought had been a lord among wits; but I find he is only a wit among lords."

"He must be a dull Fellow indeed, whom neither Love, Malice, nor Necessity, can inspire with Wit."

"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."

"After all, wit is something like sunshine in a frost—very sharp, very bright, but very cold and uncomfortable."

"On peut dire que son esprit brille aux dépens de sa mèmoire."

"Wit: a form of sex display."

"There's a hell of a distance between wise-cracking and wit. Wit has truth in it; wise-cracking is simply calisthenics with words."

"For wit and judgment often are at strife, Though meant each other's aid, like man and wife."

"So modest plainness sets off sprightly wit, For works may have more wit than does 'em good, As bodies perish through excess of blood."

"How the wit brightens! how the style refines!"

"If faith itself has different dresses worn, What wonder modes in wit should take their turn?"

"True wit is nature to advantage dress'd, What oft was thought, but ne'er so well expressed."

"Wit involves describing the world as it actually is. You experience a release of tension when you notice a glitch. Something was off-kilter, and now you see what it was. The elephant in the room has been named. The evil spirit has been incanted. Perceiving an incongruity in our supposedly smooth-running society provokes a shock of recognition and a concomitant burst of laughter. Wit is a critical-satirical process that can be more serious than the “humorous” label suggests."

"You have a nimble wit; I think it was made of Atalanta's heels."

"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."

"Since brevity is the soul of wit, And tediousness the limbs and outward flourishes, I will be brief."

"They have a plentiful lack of wit."

"I am not only witty in myself, but the cause that wit is in other men."

"Rudeness is a sauce to his good wit, Which gives men stomach to digest his words, With better appetite."

"His eye begets occasion for his wit; For every object that the one doth catch, The other turns to a mirth-moving jest."

"Your wit's too hot, it speeds too fast, 'twill tire."

"Great men may jest with saints; 'tis wit in them; But, in the less, foul profanation."

"He doth, indeed, show some sparks that are like wit."

"A good old man, sir: he will be talking, as they say, When the age is in, the wit is out."

"Sir, your wit ambles well; it goes easily."

"Thy wit is as quick as the greyhound's mouth; it catches."

"To leave this keen encounter of our wits, And fall somewhat into a slower method."

"Thy wit is a very bitter sweeting: it is most sharp sauce."

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

"Those wits that think they have thee, do very oft prove fools; and I, that am sure I lack thee, may pass for a wise man; for what says Quinapalus? "Better a witty fool than a foolish wit.""

"Against their wills what numbers ruin shun, Purely through want of wit to be undone! Nature has shown by making it so rare, That wit's a jewel which we need not wear."

"As in smooth oil the razor best is whet, So wit is by politeness sharpest set; Their want of edge from their offence is seen, Both pain us least when exquisitely keen."

"An ounce of wit is worth a pound of sorrow."

"Que les gens d'esprit sont bêtes."

"Votre esprit en donne aux autres."

"Don't put too fine a point to your wit for fear it should get blunted."

"I am a fool, I know it; and yet, Heaven help me, I'm poor enough to be a wit."

"Wit, now and then, struck smartly, shows a spark."

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

"Wit will shine Through the harsh cadence of a rugged line."

"Mit wenig Witz und viel Behagen Dreht jeder sich im engen Zirkeltanz Wie junge Katzen mit dem Schwanz."

"Les beaux esprits lernen einander durch dergleichen rencontre erkennen."

"Wit is the salt of conversation, not the food."

"At our wittes end."

"Wit is the clash and reconcilement of incongruities; the meeting of extremes round a corner."

"Wit, like money, bears an extra value when rung down immediately it is wanted. Men pay severely who require credit."

"Je n'ai jamais d'esprit qu'au bas de l'escalier."

"A man does not please long when he has only one species of wit."

"A small degree of wit, accompanied by good sense, is less tiresome in the long run than a great amount of wit without it."

"Medio de fonte leporum Surgit amari aliquid quod in ipsis floribus angat."

"Mother Wit. (Nature's mother wit)."

"Have you summoned your wits from wool-gathering?"

"Nul n'aura de l'esprit, hors nous et nos amis."

"L'impromptu est justement la pierre de touche de l'esprit."

"La raillerie est un discours en faveur de son esprit contre son bon naturel."

"Whose wit, in the combat, as gentle as bright, Ne'er carried a heart-stain away on its blade."

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

"Sal Atticum."

"A wit with dunces, and a dunce with wits."

"You beat your pate, and fancy wit will come; Knock as you please, there's nobody at home."

"Some men's wit is like a dark lantern, which serves their own turn and guides them their own way, but is never known (according to the Scripture phrase) either to shine forth before men, or to glorify their Father in heaven."

"Generally speaking there is more wit than talent in this world. Society swarms with witty people who lack talent."

"Fine wits destroy themselves with their own plots, in meddling with great affairs of state."

"Man could direct his ways by plain reason, and support his life by tasteless food; but God has given us wit, and flavour, and brightness, and laughter, and perfumers, to enliven the days of man's pilgrimage, and to "charm his pained steps over the burning marle.""

"Surprise is so essential an ingredient of wit that no wit will bear repetition;—at least the original electrical feeling produced by any piece of wit can never be renewed."

"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."

"Wit consists in knowing the resemblance of things which differ, and the difference of things which are alike."

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

"It is with wits as with razors, which are never so apt to cut those they are employed on as when they have lost their edge."

"Too much wit makes the world rotten."

"And wit its honey lent, without the sting."

"Good wits will jump."

"He had too thoughtful a wit: like a penknife in too narrow a sheath, too sharp for his body."

"Nae wut without a portion o' impertinence."

"Though I am young, I scorn to flit On the wings of borrowed wit."