Charles Caleb Colton Quotes About Wit

Quotes about: Wit

• Memory is the friend of wit, but the treacherous ally of invention; there are many books that owe their success to two things; good memory of those who write them, and the bad memory of those who read them

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Memories, Book, Writing

  Charles Caleb Colton (1836). “Lacon: Or, Many Things in Few Words, Addressed to Those who Think”, p.160

• Antithesis may be the blossom of wit, but it will never arrive at maturity unless sound sense be the trunk and truth the root. CHARLES CALEB COLTON, Lacon; Or, Many Things in a Few Words Light, whether it be material or moral, is the best reformer; for it prevents those disorders which other remedies sometimes cure, but sometimes confirm.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Maturity, Light, Roots

• Wit may do very well for a mistress, but [I] should prefer reason for a wife.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Wife, Mistress, May

  Charles Caleb Colton (1824). “Lacon, Or, Many Things in a Few Words: Addressed to Those who Think”, p.47

• Reply to wit with gravity, and to gravity with wit.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Gravity, Wit

• There were moments of despondency when Shakespeare thought himself no poet, and Raphael no painter; when the greatest wits have doubted the excellence of their happiest efforts.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Effort, Excellence, Melancholy

• There is more jealousy between rival wits than rival beauties, for vanity has no sex. But in both cases there must be pretensions, or there will be no jealousy.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Sex, Vanity, Rivals

  Charles Caleb Colton (1836). “Lacon: Or, Many Things in Few Words, Addressed to Those who Think”, p.110

• Repartee is perfect when it effects its purpose with a double edge. It is the highest order of wit, as it indicates the coolest yet quickest exercise of genius, at a moment when the passions are roused.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Passion, Exercise, Order

• Wit in women is a jewel, which, unlike all others, borrows lustre from its setting, rather than bestows it; since nothing is so easy as to fancy a very beautiful woman extremely witty.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Beautiful, Witty, Jewels

  Charles Caleb Colton (1836). “Lacon: Or, Many Things in Few Words, Addressed to Those who Think”, p.86

• Fashions smile has given wit to dullness and grace to deformity, and has brought everything into vogue, by turns, but virtue.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Fashion, Grace, Virtue

• There is no quality of the mind, or of the body, that so instantaneously and irresistibly captivates, as wit. An elegant writer has observed that wit may do very well for a mistress, but that he should prefer reason for a wife. He that deserts the latter, and gives himself up entirely to the guidance of the former, will certainly fall into many pitfalls and quagmires, like him who walks by flashes of lightning, rather than the steady beams of the sun.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Fall, Giving, Wife

  Charles Caleb Colton (1823). “Remarks on the Talents of Lord Byron and the Tendencies of Don Juan”, p.49

• Antithesis may be the blossom of wit, but it will never arrive at maturity unless sound sense be the trunk and truth the root.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Maturity, Roots, Style

  Charles Caleb Colton (1824). “Lacon, Or, Many Things in a Few Words: Addressed to Those who Think”, p.164

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