WIT

Related Subjects: Cleverness, Conversation, Epigram, Humor, Joke, Laughter, Originality, Pun, Wisdom

1. The monuments of wit survive the monuments of power.—BACON, Essex's Device
   

2. Wit needs leisure, and certain inequalities of position.—BALZAC, The Imaginary Mistress
   

3. Aristotle said melancholy men of all others are most witty.—ROBERT BURTON,
   Anatomy of Melancholy
   

4. We grant, although he had much wit, He was very shy of using it.—SAMUEL BUTLER, Hudibras
   

5. Good wits jump; a word to the wise is enough.—CERVANTES, Don Quixote
   

6. Don't put too fine a point to your wit for fear it should get blunted.—CERVANTES, Don Quixote
   

7. Wit will shine Through the harsh cadence of a rugged line.—DRYDEN, To the Memory of Mr. Oldham
   

8. No task's too steep for human wit.—HORACE, Odes
   

9. There still remains, to mortify a wit,
   The many-headed monster of the pit.—HORACE
   

10. The greatest fault of a penetrating wit is to go beyond the mark.—LA ROCHEFOUCAULD, Maxims
    

11. In the midst of the fountain of wit there arises something bitter, which stings in the very flowers.—LUCRETIUS, De Rerum Natura
    

12. Impropriety is the soul of wit.—SOMERSET MAUG HAM, The Moon and Sixpence
    

13. A witty woman is a treasure; a witty beauty is a power.—GEORGE MEREDITH, Diana of the Crossways
    

14. The well of true wit is truth itself.—GEORGE MEREDITH, Diana of the Crossways
    

15. Have you summoned your wits from wool-gathering?—THOMAS M IDDLETON,
    The Family of Love
    

16. You see him in travail to produce bons mots.—MOLIERE, Le Misanthrope
    

17. You beat your pate, and fancy wit will come;
    Knock as you please, there's nobody at home.—POPE, An Empty House
    

18. A wit with dunces, and a dunce with wits.—POPE, The Dunciad
    

19. Many that are wits in jest, are fools in earnest.—Proverb
    

20. It is wit to pick a lock, and steal a horse, but wisdom to let it alone.—Proverb
    

21. Use your wit as a buckler, not as a sword.—Proverb
    

22. Quick wits are generally conceited.—Proverb
    

23. Better a witty fool than a foolish wit.—Proverb
    

24. As much wit as three folks, two fools and a madman.—Proverb
    

25. After wit is everybody's wit.—Proverb
    

26. Wit and wisdom are born with a man.—JOHN SELDEN, Table Talk
    

27. Brevity is the soul of wit.—SHAKESPEARE, Hamlet
    

28. They have a plentiful lack of wit.—SHAKESPEARE, Hamlet
    

29. I am not only witty in myself but the cause that wit is in other men.—SHAKESPEARE, Henry IV
    

30. There's a skirmish of wit between them.—SHAKESPEARE, Much Ado About Nothing
    

31. Wit consists in knowing the resemblance of things which differ, and the difference of things which are alike.—MME. DE STAEL
    

32. That is as well said as if I had said it.—SWIFT, Polite Conversation
    

33. A witty saying proves nothing.—VOLTAIRE, Le Diner du Comte de Boulainvilliers