Jest Quotes - Page 2

• Jesting is often only indigence of intellect.

  Jean de la Bruyere

  Intellect

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• Every love story is a ghost story.

  David Foster Wallace

  Ghost Stories, Love Story, Stories

  David Foster Wallace (2013). “Texter”, p.11, Natur & Kultur

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• That sometimes human beings have to just sit in one place and, like, hurt. That you will become way less concerned with what other people think of you when you realize how seldom they do. That there is such a thing as raw, unalloyed, agendaless kindness. That it is possible to fall asleep during an anxiety attack. That concentrating on anything is very hard work.

  David Foster Wallace

  Hurt, Kindness, Fall

  "Infinite Jest". Book by David Foster Wallace, February 1, 1996.

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• Sole judge of Truth, in endless Error hurled: / The glory, jest, and riddle of the world!

  Alexander Pope

  Errors, Judging, World

  An Essay on Man Epistle 2, l. 15 (1733)

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• You can be shaped, or you can be broken. There is not much in between. Try to learn. Be coachable. Try to learn from everybody, especially those who fail. This is hard. ... How promising you are as a Student of the Game is a function of what you can pay attention to without running away.

  David Foster Wallace

  Running, Games, Broken

  David Foster Wallace (2011). “Infinite Jest”, p.128, Hachette UK

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• It’s all right to tell a man to lift himself by his own bootstraps, but it is cruel jest to say to a bootless man that he ought to lift himself by his own bootstraps.

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Equality, Men, Bootstraps

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• Talent is its own expectation, Jim: you either live up to it or it waves a hankie, receding forever.

  David Foster Wallace

  Expectations, Forever, Talent

  David Foster Wallace (2009). “Infinite Jest”, p.208, Hachette UK

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• You ask: What is it that philosophers have called qualitative states? I answer, only half in jest: As Louis Armstrong said when asked what jazz is, 'If you got to ask, you ain't never gonna get to know.'

  Ned Block

  Knowledge, Mind, Answers

  Ned Joel Block (2007). “Consciousness, function, and representation”, The MIT Press

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

  William Shakespeare

  Men, Saint, May

  'Measure for Measure' (1604) act 2, sc. 2, l. 127

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• The jest loses its point when he who makes it is the first to laugh.

  Friedrich Schiller

  Laughing, Firsts, Loses

  Friedrich Schiller (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Friedrich Schiller (Illustrated)”, p.698, Delphi Classics

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• It may be appropriate to quote a statement of Poincare, who said (partly in jest no doubt) that there must be something mysterious about the normal law since mathematicians think it is a law of nature whereas physicists are convinced that it is a mathematical theorem.

  Henri Poincare

  Science, Thinking, Law

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• Woman: the peg on which the wit hangs his jest, the preacher his text, the cynic his grouch and the sinner his justification.

  Helen Rowland

  Wit, Cynic, Preacher

  Irvin S. Cobb, Mary Roberts Rinehart, Helen Rowland, Richard Saunders (2017). “We Should All Be So Feminine: We Should All Be a Feminist: We Should All Be Feminists”, p.62, Lulu.com

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• He who does not like you will defame you in jest.

  Richard Schickel

  Humor, Doe, Like You

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• Never injure a friend, even in jest.

  Marcus Tullius Cicero

  Friendship, Philosophical

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• To smile at the jest which plants a thorn in another's breast is to become a principal in the mischief.

  Richard Brinsley Sheridan

  Smile, Plant, Mischief

  John Dryden, Richard Brinsley Sheridan (2010). “Modern English Drama”, p.116, Cosimo, Inc.

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• Those who can least bear a jest upon themselves, will be most diverted with one passed on others.

  Samuel Richardson

  Bears

  Samuel Richardson (1755). “A collection of the moral and instructive sentiments, maxims, cautions, and reflexions, contained in the histories of Pamela, Clarissa, and Sir Charles Grandison: Digested under proper heads, with references to the volume, ...”, p.167

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• Of all the griefs that harass the distress'd, Sure the most bitter is a scornful jest; Fate never wounds more deep the generous heart, Than when a blockhead's insult points the dart.

  Samuel Johnson

  Grief, Heart, Fate

  Samuel Johnson, Thomas Parnell, Thomas Gray, Tobias Smollett, George Gilfillan (1855). “The Poetical Works of Johnson: Parnell, Gray, and Smollett, with Memoirs, Critical Dissertations, and Explanatory Notes”, p.22

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• Here's a proposal, offered only partly in jest: no resident of the United States, whether born here or abroad, should get to be a citizen until age 18, at which time each such resident has to take a test.

  Eric Liu

  Age, United States, Citizens

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• In jest, there is truth.

  William Shakespeare

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• It has been said, and only half in jest, that a tough, professionally led union is a great force for improving management performance. It forces the manager to think about what he is doing and to be able to explain his actions and behavior.

  Peter Drucker

  Thinking, Half, Unions

  "Management: Tasks, Responsibilities". Book by Peter F. Drucker, 1973.

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• 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.

  William Cowper

  Healing, Men, Feelings

  William Cowper, James Thomson (1832). “The Works of Cowper and Thompson: Including Many Letters and Poems Never Before Published in this Country. With a New and Interesting Memoir of the Life of Thomson”, p.136

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• Chaos of thought and passion, all confused; Still by himself abused or disabused; Created half to rise, and half to fall; Great lord of all things, yet a prey to all; Sole judge of truth, in endless error hurled,- The glory, jest, and riddle of the world.

  Alexander Pope

  Truth, Confused, Fall

  An Essay on Man Epistle 2, l. 15 (1733)

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• Try to learn to let what is unfair teach you.

  David Foster Wallace

  Inspirational, Trying, Infinite Jest

  David Foster Wallace (2011). “Infinite Jest”, p.127, Hachette UK

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• There's many a true word spoken in jest.

  James Joyce

  Truth, True Words

  James Joyce, Mark Gaipa, Sean Latham, Robert Scholes (2015). “The Little Review "Ulysses"”, p.292, Yale University Press

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• ...logical validity is not a guarantee of truth.

  David Foster Wallace

  Guarantees, Infinite Jest, Logical

  David Foster Wallace (2011). “Infinite Jest”, p.145, Hachette UK

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