"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."

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

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

"Sal Atticum."

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"At our wittes end."

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"Votre esprit en donne aux autres."

"Que les gens d'esprit sont bêtes."

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

"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."

"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."

"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.""

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"They have a plentiful lack of wit."

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

"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."

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

"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."