Wit

"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."