Wit Quotes - Page 18

• I am obnoxious to each carping tongue/ Who says my hand a needle better fits./ A poet's pen all scorn I should thus wrong/ For such despite they cast on female wits;/ If what I do prove well, it won't advance,/ They'll say it's stolen, or else, it was by chance.

  Anne Bradstreet

  Hands, Female, Tongue

  1678 Several Poems Compiled with Great Variety of Wit and Learning,'The Prologue'.

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• That night as I lay in bed, I thought of several things I could have said and mourned the fact that my wit usually bloomed late, peaking when it no longer mattered, during the solitary hours close to midnight.

  Siri Hustvedt

  Regret, Night, Bed

  Siri Hustvedt (2017). “The Blindfold”, p.34, Simon and Schuster

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• If you are well-mannered towards those whose views are similar to yours, you may be said to exhibit a fairly good character. But, if you behave properly wit those holding divergent views from you or who criticize you, then you deserve to be credited with having an excellent character. (p. 99)

  Maulana Wahiduddin Khan

  Character, Views, Divergent

  Maulana Wahiduddin Khan (2014). “Spirit of Islam”, p.7, Goodword Books

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• The soul grows into lovely habits as easily as into ugly ones, and the moment a life begins to blossom into beautiful words and deeds, that moment a new standard of conduct is established, and your eager neighbors look to you for a continuous manifestation of the good cheer, the sympathy, the ready wit, the comradeship, or the inspiration, you once showed yourself capable of. Bear figs for a season or two, and the world outside the orchard is very unwilling you should bear thistles.

  Kate Douglas Wiggin

  Beautiful, Cheer, Inspiration

  Kate Douglas Wiggin (2016). “REBECCA OF SUNNYBROOK FARM & NEW CHRONICLES OF REBECCA (Children’s Book Classics): Adventure Novels”, p.124, e-artnow

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• I enjoy my pettiness with a dose of wit.

  David Liss

  Enjoy, Dose, Pettiness

  David Liss (2008). “The Whiskey Rebels: A Novel”, p.256, Random House

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• You know, Gilan, sarcasm isn't the lowest form of wit. It's not even wit at all." -Halt

  John Flanagan

  Sarcasm, Form, Halt

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• sloughing my skin / escaping it's grip / stripped of my wit / it hurts to be me .

  Maggie Stiefvater

  Hurt, Escaping, Skins

  Maggie Stiefvater (2011). “Shiver Trilogy (Shiver, Linger, Forever)”, p.214, Scholastic Inc.

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• I'm sorry I stood there like a half-wit, Count Petroff," she told him matter-of-factly, "but I was a bit--surprised. After all, it's not everyday that I see a man who's prettier than I am." (Alexandra)

  Johanna Lindsey

  Sorry, Men, Everyday

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• Generosity without delicacy, like wit without judgment, generally gives as much pain as pleasure.

  Fanny Burney

  Pain, Generosity, Giving

  "Evelina: Or, the History of a Young Lady's Entrance into the World".

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• I'd really like to go with you, Agachak. Truly I would...but I just can't." "I don't understand. Why not?" "I'm not allowed to leave home. My mother'd punish me something awful if I did..." "But you're the king." "That doesn't change a thing. I still do what mother says. She tells everybody that I'm the best boy ever when it comes to that." Agachak resisted a powerful urge to change this half-wit into a toad or perhaps a jellyfish.

  David Eddings

  Mother, Kings, Powerful

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• Didn't you have any sadistic nannies who told you these tales to keep you quiet and well behaved at night? Heavens, what's to become of the Empire if governesses have lost their touch for scaring the wits out of their girls?

  Libba Bray

  Girl, Night, Heaven

  Libba Bray (2010). “A Great and Terrible Beauty”, p.85, Simon and Schuster

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• One can have a wit, but not a witless

  Brandon Sanderson

  Brandon Sanderson (2017). “Brandon Sanderson's Fantasy Firsts: (The Way of Kings, Mistborn: The Final Empire, Rithmatist, Alcatraz vs. The Evil Librarians)”, p.1775, Macmillan

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• To experience real agony is something hard to write about, impossible to understand while it grips you; you're frightened out of your wits, can’t sit still, move, or even go decently insane.

  Charles Bukowski

  Real, Moving, Writing

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• If wits were pins, the man would be a veritable hedgehog.

  Frances Hardinge

  Men, Would Be, Hedgehogs

  Frances Hardinge (2011). “Fly By Night”, p.115, Pan Macmillan

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• The principal difference between an adventurer and a suicide is that the adventurer leaves himself a margin of escape (the narrower the margin the greater the adventure), a margin whose width and length may be determined by unknown factors but whose navigation is determined by the measure of the adventurer's nerve and wits. It is exhilarating to live by one's nerves or toward the summit of one's wits.

  Tom Robbins

  Suicide, Adventure, Differences

  Tom Robbins (2003). “Another Roadside Attraction”, p.112, Bantam

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• Sometimes with the most intense pain a paralysis of sensibility occurs. The soul disintegrates--hence the deadly frost--the free power of the mind--the shattering, ceaseless wit of this kind of despair. There is no inclination for anything any more--the person is alone, like a baleful power--as he has no connection with the rest of the world he consumes himself gradually--and in accordance with his own principle he is--misanthropic and misotheos.

  Novalis

  Pain, Soul, Mind

  Novalis (1997). “Novalis: Philosophical Writings”, p.34, SUNY Press

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• Or yet in wise old Ravenclaw, if you've a ready mind, Where those of wit and learning, Will always find their kind.

  J. K. Rowling

  Wise, Mind, Gryffindor

  J. K. Rowling, “Sorting Hat's Song (Book 1)”

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• It was Will who broke the silence. "Very well. You have me alone in the corrider-" "Yes, yes," said Tessa impatiently,"and thousands of women all over England would pay handsomely for the privilege of such an opportunity. Can we put aside the display of your wit for a moment? This is important.

  Cassandra Clare

  Opportunity, Silence, Important

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• I would love to have a battle of wits with you, Bison, but I doubt it would be a fair fight.' 'Shut your face.' 'Exactly my point.

  Derek Landy

  Fighting, Doubt, Battle

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• Poetry is only the highest eloquence of passion, the most vivid form of expression that can be given to our conception of anything, whether pleasurable or painful, mean or dignified, delightful or distressing. It is the perfect coincidence of the image and the words with the feeling we have, and of which we cannot get rid in any other way, that gives an instant "satisfaction to the thought." This is equally the origin of wit and fancy, of comedy and tragedy, of the sublime and pathetic.

  William Hazlitt

  Mean, Passion, Writing

  William Hazlitt (1845). “Lectures on the English Poets”, p.9

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• My liege, and madam, to expostulate What majesty should be, what duty is, Why day is day, night night, and time is time, Were nothing but to waste night, day and time. Therefore, since brevity is the soul of wit, And tediousness the limbs and outward flourishes, I will be brief.

  William Shakespeare

  Night, Soul, Majesty

  William Shakespeare (1963). “Hamlet”, p.41, CUP Archive

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• No one is satisfied with his position, but every one is satisfied with his wit

  Leo Tolstoy

  Satisfied, Position

  Leo Tolstoy (2016). “ANNA KARENINA – Two Unabridged Translations in One Premium Edition (World Classics Series): The Greatest Romantic Tragedy of All Times from the Renowned Author of War and Peace & The Death of Ivan Ilyich (Including Biographies of the Author)”, p.226, e-artnow

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• If he had his wits about him Bunny would surely keep his mouth shut; but now, with his subconscious mind knocked loose from its perch and flapping in the hollow corridors of his skull as erratically as a bat, there was no way to be sure of anything he might do.

  Donna Tartt

  Skulls, Mind, Bats

  Donna Tartt (2011). “The Secret History”, p.204, Vintage

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• Before we do, I suggest you take a break. If you need to go to the bathroom, this is a good time. If you're sleepy, go to bed and save the next chapter for tomorrow. For the magician's story, you must have all your wits about you. No wandering minds allowed.

  Pseudonymous Bosch

  Mind, Bed, Needs

  Pseudonymous Bosch (2011). “The Name of this Book is Secret: The Secret Series”, p.74, Usborne Publishing Ltd

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• Why was I chosen?' 'Such questions cannot be answered,' said Gandalf. 'You may be sure that it was not for any merit that others do not possess. But you have been chosen, and you must therefore use such strength and heart and wits as you have.

  J. R. R. Tolkien

  Heart, Use, May

  J.R.R. Tolkien (2012). “The Fellowship of the Ring: Being the First Part of The Lord of the Rings”, p.52, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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