Motivational Quotes

Wit

Wit has truth in it; wisecracking is simply calisthenics with words.

- Parker, Dorothy

Best Quotes about Wit

Wit is the epitaph of an emotion.

Nietzsche, Friedrich

Wit is more often a shield than a lance.

A wise man will live as much within his wit as within his income.

Chesterfield, Lord

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

Lucretius

Avoid witicisms at the expense of others.

Mann, Horace

Wit has truth in it; wisecracking is simply calisthenics with words.

Parker, Dorothy

Brevity is the body and soul of wit.

Paul, Jean

Humor is consistent with pathos, whilst wit is not.

Coleridge, Samuel Taylor

The banalities of a great man pass for wit.

Chase, Alexander

10.

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

Johnson, Samuel

11.

To be witty is not enough. One must possess sufficient wit to avoid having too much of it.

Maurois, Andre

12.

Wit is so shining a quality that everybody admires it; most people aim at it, all people fear it, and few love it unless in themselves. A man must have a good share of wit himself to endure a great share of it in another.

Chesterfield, Lord

13.

Wit. The salt with which the American humorist spoils his intellectual cookery by leaving it out.

Bierce, Ambrose

14.

True wit is nature to advantage dressed, what oft was thought, but never so well expressed.

Pope, Alexander

15.

You can make a sordid thing sound like a brilliant drawing-room comedy. Probably a fear we have of facing up to the real issues. Could you say we were guilty of Noel Cowardice?

Vries, Peter De

16.

Wit is the sudden marriage of ideas which, before their union, were not perceived to have any relation.

Twain, Mark

17.

There's a helluva distance between wisecracking and wit. Wit has truth in it; wisecracking is simply calisthenics with words.

Parker, Dorothy

18.

A man renowned for repartee will seldom scruple to make free with friendship's finest feeling, will thrust a dagger at your breast, and say he wounded you in jest, by way of balm for healing.

Cowper, William

19.

People who can't be witty exert themselves to be devout and affectionate.

Eliot, George

20.

Witticisms please as long as we keep them within boundaries, but pushed to excess they cause offense.

Phaedrus

21.

Wit and Humor -- if any difference, it is in duration -- lightning and electric light. Same material, apparently; but one is vivid, and can do damage -- the other fools along and enjoys elaboration.

Twain, Mark

22.

Wit lies in recognizing the resemblance among things which differ and the difference between things which are alike.

Stael, Germaine De

23.

Melancholy men are of all others the most witty.

Aristotle

24.

The witty woman is a tragic figure in American life. Wit destroys eroticism and eroticism destroys wit, so women must choose between taking lovers and taking no prisoners.

King, Florence

25.

Wit ought to be a glorious treat like caviar; never spread it about like marmalade.

Coward, Noel

26.

Humor does not include sarcasm, invalid irony, sardonicism, innuendo, or any other form of cruelty. When these things are raised to a high point they can become wit, but unlike the French and the English, we have not been much good at wit since the days of Benjamin Franklin.

Thurber, James