Wit Quotes - Page 27

• I'm filled with admiration, delight, and gratitude at discovering James Lasdun's poems in A Jump Start. He has wit, speed, intelligence, a keen eye, precision, and imagination of a high order.

  Anthony Hecht

  Gratitude, Eye, Order

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• Puns are the droppings of soaring wits.

  Victor Hugo

  Dropping, Pun, Soar

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• I have wit in my work and a sense of humor, but I do not use irony in any way

  John Zorn

  Humor, Way, Use

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• If we were left solely to the wordy wit of legislators in Congress for our guidance, uncorrected by the seasonal experience and the effectual complaints of the people, America would not long retain her rank among the nations.

  Henry David Thoreau

  America, Long, People

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• To be in love- where scorn is bought with groans,
  Coy looks with heart-sore sighs, one fading moment's mirth
  With twenty watchful, weary, tedious nights;
  If haply won, perhaps a hapless gain;
  If lost, why then a grievous labour won;
  However, but a folly bought with wit,
  Or else a wit by folly vanquished.

  William Shakespeare

  Heart, Night, Stupidity

  William Shakespeare (1867). “The Pictorial edition of the works of Shakspere, ed. by C. Knight. [8 vols., including a vol. entitled William Shakspere, by C. Knight]. [8 vols. The vol. containing the biogr. is of the 3rd ed.].”, p.19

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• And writers say, as the most forward bud
  Is eaten by the canker ere it blow,
  Even so by love the young and tender wit
  Is turn'd to folly, blasting in the bud,
  Losing his verdure even in the prime,
  And all the fair effects of future hopes.

  William Shakespeare

  Blow, Stupidity, Bud

  William Shakespeare (1858). “The Plays of Shakespeare”, p.4

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• He uses his folly like a stalking-horse, and under the presentation of that he shoots his wit.

  William Shakespeare

  Horse, Use, Fool

  'As You Like It' (1599) act 5, sc. 4, l. [112]

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• No evil is without its compensation. The less money, the less trouble; the less favor, the less envy. Even in those cases which put us out of wits, it is not the loss itself, but the estimate of the loss that troubles us.

  Seneca the Younger

  Money, Loss, Evil

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• Whose wit in the combat, as gentle as bright, Ne'er carried a heart-stain away on its blade.

  Charles Lamb

  Heart, Blades, Stains

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• When you are dealing with a child, keep all your wits about you, and sit on the floor.

  Austin O'Malley

  Inspirational, Children, Humorous

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• Behind every footballing tough guy there lurks a mincing aesthete with a love of art for art's sake, football for football's sake. A win without art is somehow less than a victory; less, almost, than a beautiful defeat. In football, the romantic and the pragmatist are ever at war in the same breast. Beauty, it must be understood here, is not Barcelona's aim but their method. And last night they were ready to use this method at every opportunity - quick-fire passing of wit and purpose in the danger areas, seeking always to produce an unlooked-for player in a position of threat.

  Simon Barnes

  Beautiful, Soccer, Football

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• Genius is, to be sure, not a matter of arbitrariness, but rather of freedom, just as wit, love, and faith, which once shall become arts and disciplines. We should demand genius from everybody, without, however, expecting it.

  Karl Wilhelm Friedrich Schlegel

  Love, Art, Discipline

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• Kyria Abrahams, former teen bride of a doomsday cult and seeker of salvation in slam poetry, tells the terribly funny story of her improbable life with candor, wit, and an unsparing eye for the perfect detail. Brilliant.

  Janice Erlbaum

  Eye, Perfect, Details

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• For as the body grows old, so the wits grow old and become blind towards all things alike.

  Herodotus

  Body, Blind, Grows

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• I mean everything's a lot more smoother. It's just calm. IN the beginning, I had the typical attitude of a young rapper makin money... ya know I was the partyin guy... I was the guy wit the girls... all the extra that came wit the game...it's up to the artist to know when to say when. You can't live that kind of lifestyle forever. ...I learn from the other people's mistake. I know when to say no. You learn to make the right decisions and pick the right choices. That's all that's really changed.

  The Notorious B.I.G.

  Girl, Attitude, Mistake

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• I seen her in the subway, on my way to Brooklyn.
  "Hello, good lookin, is this seat tooken?"
  
  On the A Train, pickin at her brain,
  I couldn't get her number, I couldn't get her name.
  
  I said, "I still like your style and fashion,
  But I hate your hot sadiddy attitude wit a passion.
  Is it because brothers like to hawk a lot?
  Is it because your sign don't talk a lot?"
  
  She turned away, no play, I said, "OK,
  You don't really look good, I hope you have a bad day."

  Rakim

  Fashion, Brother, Attitude

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• It doesn't phaze, I amaze wit my phrases
  Play this in your Jeep, so your neighbors lose some sleep
  (I wanna thank you)

  Del tha Funkee Homosapien

  Rap, Sleep, Play

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• Politics make me sick

  William Howard Taft

  Wisdom, Witty, Sick

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• I was gearing up for it. I took some singing lessons. And I opened my mouth, and Atom promptly said, 'That's not going to happen. We love your voice, but maybe we could use some of your English wit.' He had doubts about it from way back. For starters, we weren't going to be doing the Italian-American crooning thing.

  Colin Firth

  Love You, Italian, Voice

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• The mental disease of the present generation is impatience of study, contempt of the great masters of ancient wisdom, and a disposition to rely wholly upon unassisted genius and natural sagacity. The wits of these happy days have discovered a way to fame, which the dull caution of our laborious ancestors durst never attempt; they cut the knots of sophistry, which it was formerly the business of years to untie, solve difficulties by sudden irradiations of intelligence, and comprehend long processes of argument by immediate intuition.

  Samuel Johnson

  Cutting, Years, Long

  Samuel Johnson, Arthur Murphy (1837). “The Works of Samuel Johnson, LL. D.: With an Essay on His Life and Genius /c by Arthur Murphy, Esq”, p.237

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• I will not wage war against women and children! I have instructed my air force to limit their attacks to military objectives. However, if the enemy should conclude from this that he might get away with waging war in a different manner he will receive an answer that he'll be knocked out of his wits!

  Adolf Hitler

  Children, Military, War

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• SADNESSES OF THE INTELLECT: Sadness of being misunderstood [sic]; Humor sadness; Sadness of love wit[hou]t release; Sadne[ss of be]ing smart; Sadness of not knowing enough words to [express what you mean]; Sadness of having options; Sadness of wanting sadness; Sadness of confusion; Sadness of domes[tic]ated birds; Sadness of fini[shi]ng a book; Sadness of remembering; Sadness of forgetting; Anxiety sadness.

  Jonathan Safran Foer

  Life, Smart, Book

  Jonathan Safran Foer (2013). “Everything Is Illuminated”, p.211, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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• For action, whatever its immediate purpose, also implies relief at doing something, anything, and the joy of exertion. This is the optimism that is inherent in, and proper and indispensable to action, for without it nothing would ever be undertaken. It in no way suppresses the critical sense or clouds the judgment. On the contrary this optimism sharpens the wits, it creates a certain perspective and, at the last moment, lets in a ray of perpendicular light which illuminates all one's previous calculations, cuts and shuffles them and deals you the card of success, the winning number.

  Blaise Cendrars

  Cutting, Winning, Numbers

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• Science is history arranged according to the superstition and taste of the moment. The vocabulary of scholars has no wit, no salt. These heavy tomes have no soul, they are filled with distress.

  Blaise Cendrars

  Vocabulary, Soul, Superstitions

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• If you don't think, and you have no wit and you have so many hangups that you can't look beyond your cup of coffee then you're never going to understand what I'm really saying. Because you know what? You're going to shut down and close off before you hear me. If I'm threatening you, you're going to see it the way you need to see it so you can dismiss me.

  Tori Amos

  Coffee, Thinking, Needs

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