Jest Quotes - Page 4

• Where there is happiness, there is found pleasure in nonsense. The transformation of experience into its opposite, of the suitable into the unsuitable, the obligatory into the optional (but in such a manner that this process produces no injury and is only imagined in jest), is a pleasure.

  Friedrich Nietzsche

  Opposites, Transformation, Nonsense

  Friedrich Nietzsche “Writings of Nietzsche: Volume III”, Lulu.com

  6 Copy quote

  Show source

• It is a melancholy consideration that there should be several among us so hardened and deluded as to think an oath a proper subject for a jest; and to make this, which is one of the most solemn acts of religion, an occasion of mirth. Yet such is the depravation of our manners at present, that nothing is more frequent than to hear profligate men ridiculing, to the best of their abilities, these sacred pledges of their duty and allegiance; and endeavouring to be witty upon themselves, for daring to prevaricate with God and man.

  Joseph Addison

  Witty, Men, Thinking

  Joseph Addison (1837). “The Tatler. The Guardian. The Freeholder. The Whig-examiner. The lover. Dialogues upon the usefulness of ancient medals. Remarks on several parts of Italy, etc. The present state of the war. The late trial and conviction of Count Tariff. The evidences of the Christian religion. Essay on Virgil's Georgics. Poems on several occasions. Translations from Ovid's Metamorphoses. Notes on some of the foregoing stories in Ovid's Metamorphoses. Poemata. Rosamond. Cato. The drummer”, p.181

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• Every dream is a prophecy: every jest is an earnest in the womb of Time.

  George Bernard Shaw

  Funny, Dream, Womb

  George Bernard Shaw (2004). “John Bull's Other Island”, p.164, 1st World Publishing

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• The hapless wit has his labors always to begin, the call for novelty is never satisfied, and one jest only raises expectation of another.

  Samuel Johnson

  Expectations, Novelty, Wit

  Samuel Johnson (1810). “The Works of Samuel Johnson, LL.D.: With An Essay on His Life and Genius”, p.5

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• Life is too transcendentally humorous for a man not to take it seriously. Compared with it, Death is but a shallow jest.

  William John Locke

  Life, Humorous, Men

  William John Locke (1925). “Simon the Jester”, p.322, Library of Alexandria

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• In France everything is a matter for jest. People make quips about the scaffold, about Napoleon's defeat on the banks of The Beresina, and about the barricades of our revolutions. So, at the assizes of the Last Judgment, there will always be a Frenchmen to crack a joke.

  Honore de Balzac

  People, Cracks, Matter

  8 Copy quote

• Man is a living lie--a bitter jest Upon himself--a conscious grain of sand Lost in a desert of unconsciousness.

  Amos Bronson Alcott

  Lying, Men, Desert

  6 Copy quote

• An atheist is but a mad, ridiculous derider of piety, but a hypocrite makes a sober jest of God and religion; he finds it easier to be upon his knees than to rise to a good action.

  Alexander Pope

  Atheist, Hypocrite, Mad

  Alexander Pope, Owen Ruffhead (1807). “Poetry and letters-1807”, p.109

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• It is the history of our kindnesses that alone make this world tolerable. If it were not for that, for the effect of kind words, kind looks, kind letters . . . I should be inclined to think our life a practical jest in the worst possible spirit.

  Robert Louis Stevenson

  Kindness, Thinking, Looks

  4 Copy quote

• O, Times! O, Manners! It is my opinion That you are changing sadly your dominion I mean the reign of manners hath long ceased, For men have none at all, or bad at least; And as for times, altho' 'tis said by many The "good old times" were far the worst of any, Of which sound Doctrine I believe each tittle Yet still I think these worst a little. I've been a thinking -isn't that the phrase?- I like your Yankee words and Yankee ways - I've been a thinking, whether it were best To Take things seriously, Or all in jest

  Edgar Allan Poe

  Believe, Mean, Men

  Edgar Allan Poe (2014). “Complete Collection of Edgar Allan Poe - 170+ eBooks (Complete Tales, Poems, Novels, Essays, Miscellaneous, Play)”, p.702, Ageless Reads

  5 Copy quote

  Show source

• It must be that there is something naturally absurd in a sincere emotion, though why there should be I cannot imagine, unless it is that man, the ephemeral inhabitant of an insignificant planet, with all his pain and all his striving is but a jest in an eternal mind.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Pain, Men, Mind

  W. Somerset Maugham (2010). “Cakes And Ale”, p.131, Random House

  15 Copy quote

  Show source

• I always jest to people, the Oval Office is the kind of place where people stand outside, they're getting ready to come in and tell me what for, and they walk in and get overwhelmed in the atmosphere, and they say, man, you're looking pretty.

  George W. Bush

  Men, People, Office

  President Bush's Press Conference, www.washingtonpost.com. November 4, 2004.

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• you can't fit the same religion to every man any mo' than you can the same pair of breeches. The big man takes the big breeches an' the little man takes the small ones, an' it's jest the same with religion. It may be cut after one pattern, but it's might apt to get its shape from the wearer inside. Why, thar ain't any text so peaceable that it ain't drawn blood from somebody.

  Ellen Glasgow

  Cutting, Men, Blood

  4 Copy quote

• If you must mount the gallows, give a jest to the crowd, a coin the hangman, and make the drop with a smile on your lips.

  Robert Jordan

  Smile, Giving, Coins

  Robert Jordan (2010). “The Fires of Heaven: Book Five of 'The Wheel of Time'”, p.577, Macmillan

  12 Copy quote

  Show source

• The hands that had made the sun and stars were too small to reach the huge heads of the cattle. Upon this paradox, we might almost say upon this jest, all the literature of our faith is founded.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Stars, Hands, Literature

  4 Copy quote

• The universe was not made in jest but in solemn incomprehensible earnest.

  Annie Dillard

  Made, Earnest, Solemn

  ANNIE DILLARD (1974). “PILGRIM AT TINKER CREEK”

  8 Copy quote

  Show source

• Certain streets have an atmosphere of their own, a sort of universal fame and the particular affection of their citizens. One of such streets is the Cannebiere, and the jest: "If Paris had a Cannebiere, it would be a little Marseilles" is the jocular expression of municipal pride. I, too, I have been under the spell. For me it has been a street leading into the unknown.

  Joseph Conrad

  Book, Pride, Paris

  Joseph Conrad (2016). “The Arrow of Gold”, p.7, Joseph Conrad

  30 Copy quote

  Show source

• Wit generally succeeds more from being happily addressed than from its native poignancy. A jest, calculated to spread at a gaming-table, may be received with, perfect indifference should it happen to drop in a mackerel-boat.

  Oliver Goldsmith

  Perfect, May, Tables

  Oliver Goldsmith (1841). “Essays”, p.3

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• Blest be that spot, where cheerful guests retire
  To pause from toil, and trim their evening fire;
  Blest that abode, where want and pain repair,
  And every stranger finds a ready chair
  Blest be those feasts with simple plenty crown'd,
  Where all the ruddy family around
  Laugh at the jest or pranks, that never fail,
  Or sigh with pity at some mournful tale,
  Or press the bashful stranger to his food,
  And learn the luxury of doing good.

  Oliver Goldsmith

  Pain, Simple, Fire

  Oliver Goldsmith (1833). “Miscellaneous Works of Oliver Goldsmith: With a New Life of the Author”, p.81

  10 Copy quote

  Show source

• The fund of sensible discourse is limited; that of jest and badinerie is infinite.

  William Shenstone

  Infinite, Sensible, Discourse

  William Shenstone (1804). “Essays on Men and Manners”, p.176

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• A husband and wife should resolve never to wrangle with each other; never to bandy words or indulge in the least ill-humour. Never! I say; NEVER. Wrangling, even in jest, and putting on an air of ill-humour merely to tease, becomes earnest by practice.

  Timothy Shay Arthur

  Husband, Air, Practice

  6 Copy quote

• Falsehood flies, and truth comes limping after it, so that when men come to be undeceived, it is too late; the jest is over, and the tale hath had its effect.

  Jonathan Swift

  Men, Too Late, Limping

  Jonathan Swift, John Hawkesworth (1784). “The Works of Jonathan Swift, D.D., Dean of St. Patrick's, Dublin: Including the Whole of His Posthumous Pieces, Letters, &c”, p.15

  48 Copy quote

  Show source

• But jest apart--what virtue canst thou trace
  In that broad trim that hides thy sober face?
  Does that long-skirted drab, that over-nice
  And formal clothing, prove a scorn of vice?
  Then for thine accent--what in sound can be
  So void of grace as dull monotony?

  George Crabbe

  Nice, Long, Grace

  4 Copy quote

• Merriment is always the effect of a sudden impression. The jest which is expected is already destroyed.

  Samuel Johnson

  Impression, Expected, Effects

  Samuel Johnson (1825). “The Works of Samuel Johnson, LL.D.”, p.321

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• Know, O beloved, that man was not created in jest or at random, but marvelously made and for some great end. Although he is not form everlasting, yet he lives for ever; and though his body is mean and earthly, yet his spirit is lofty and divine

  Al-Ghazali

  Mean, Men, Body

  111 Copy quote