Wit Quotes - Page 29

• There are two things in ordinary conversation which ordinary people dislike - information and wit

  Stephen Leacock

  Two, People, Ordinary

  Stephen Leacock, Gerald Lynch (2002). “Leacock on Life”, p.82, University of Toronto Press

  22 Copy quote

  Show source

• A cabaret song has got to be written - for the middle voice, ideally - because you've got to hear the wit of the words. And a cabaret song gives the singer room to act, more even than an opera singer.

  James Fenton

  Song, Voice, Giving

  9 Copy quote

• Our erected wit maketh us to know what perfection is.

  Philip Sidney

  Perfection, Knows

  Sir Philip Sidney (1724). “The works of the Honourable Sir Philip Sidney, kt., in prose and verse”

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• Where the drink goes in, there the wit goes out.

  George Herbert

  Drink

  George Herbert (1871). “The English Poems of George Herbert: Together with His Collection of Proverbs Entitled Jacula Prudentum”, p.227

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• I envy no quality of the mind or intellect in others; not genius, power, wit, nor fancy; but, if I could choose what would be most delightful, and, I believe, most useful to me, I should prefer a firm religious belief to every other blessing.

  Humphry Davy

  Religious, Believe, Blessing

  "Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers". Book by Josiah Hotchkiss Gilbert, p. 241, 1895.

  9 Copy quote

  Show source

• Because if you've got the wit, you can make anything into a melody, ultimately.

  Gerry Mulligan

  Mulligans, Melody, Ifs

  15 Copy quote

• A fine and beautiful life lies before thee, because thou hast a lively mind and a good wit. Thine arms are very strong and sturdy. Swimming hath helped to make them so, but only because thou hast had the will to do it. Fret not, my son. None of us is perfect. It is better to have crooked legs than a crooked spirit. We can only do the best we can with what we have. That, after all, is the measure of success: what we do with what we have.

  Marguerite de Angeli

  Beautiful, Strong, Lying

  9 Copy quote

• Voices and movements approach loss and remembrance profoundly, making poetry of the mundane and seasoning it with wit.

  Deborah Jowitt

  Loss, Voice, Remembrance

  4 Copy quote

• There's no doubt about it. Arcadia is Tom Stoppard's richest, most ravishing comedy to date, a play of wit, intellect, language, brio and, new for him, emotion. It's like a dream of levitation: you're instantaneously aloft, soaring, banking, doing loop-the-loops and then, when you think you're about to plummet to earth, swooping to a gentle touchdown of not easily described sweetness and sorrow.

  Vincent Canby

  Dream, Thinking, Play

  10 Copy quote

• What sort of attractions do you think lured our coreligionists out of the ghetto and into the mainstream of European culture? Was it the wit of Molière, or the ingenious stage mechanisms of Pixérécourt? Or was it simply the opportunity to cast an eye, without shame, upon the living, unclad human form?

  Ben Katchor

  Ghetto, Eye, Opportunity

  4 Copy quote

• The dullness of the fool is the whetstone of the wits.

  William Shakespeare

  Fool, You Like It, Dullness

  William Shakespeare, Juliet Dusinberre (2006). “As You Like It: Third Series”, p.163, Cengage Learning EMEA

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• Freedom, where are you? Who holds you back? [...] The mother of wit and pleasure, Oh freedom!

  Manuel Maria Barbosa du Bocage

  Mother, Pleasure

  5 Copy quote

• One that hath wine as a chain about his wits, such a one lives no life at all.

  Alcaeus

  Wine, Chains

  4 Copy quote

• Generally speaking, there is more wit than talent in the world. Society swarms with witty people who lack talent.

  Antoine Rivarol

  Witty, Talking, People

  22 Copy quote

• Many of the most successful men I have known have never grown up. They have retained bubbling-over boyishness. They have relished wit, they have indulged in humor. They have not allowed ‘dignity’ to depress them into moroseness. Youthfulness of spirit is the twin brother of optimism, and optimism is the stuff of which American business success is fashioned. Resist growing up!

  B. C. Forbes

  Success, Depressing, Brother

  6 Copy quote

• We cannot use a double standard for measuring our own and other people's policies. Our demands for democratic practices in other lands will be no more effective than the guarantees of those practiced in our own country.

  Hubert H. Humphrey

  Wisdom, Country, Land

  1948 Democratic National Convention Address, delivered 14 July 1948, Philadelphia, PA

  13 Copy quote

  Show source

• What you do, what each of us does, has an effect on the country, the state, the nation, and the world.

  Hubert H. Humphrey

  Wisdom, Country, Doe

  9 Copy quote

• Who would not give up wit for power and beauty?

  Mason Cooley

  Giving Up, Literature, Not Giving Up

  4 Copy quote

• Methinks sometimes I have no more wit than a Christian or an ordinary man has; but I am a great eater of beef, and I believe that does harm to my wit.

  William Shakespeare

  Christian, Believe, Men

  'Twelfth Night' (1601) act 1, sc. 3, l. [90]

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• Truth is disputable; not taste: what exists in the nature of things is the standard of our judgement; what each man feels within himself is the standard of sentiment. Propositions in geometry may be proved, systems in physics may be controverted; but the harmony of verse, the tenderness of passion, the brilliancy of wit, must give immediate pleasure. No man reasons concerning another's beauty; but frequently concerning the justice or injustice of his actions.

  David Hume

  Passion, Men, Giving

  David Hume (2016). “An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding: Revision of Great Book”, p.131, VM eBooks

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• Her wit was more than man, her innocence a child.

  John Dryden

  Children, Men, Innocence

  John Dryden, Paul Hammond, David Hopkins (2007). “Dryden: Selected Poems”, p.364, Pearson Education

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• Hast any philosophy in thee shepherd? .• • • • . . . He that wants money, means and content, is without three good friends; that the property of rain is to wet and fire to burn; that good pasture makes fat sheep, and a great cause of the night is lack of the sun; that he that hath learned no wit by nature nor art may complain of good breeding or comes of a very dull kindred.

  William Shakespeare

  Friendship, Art, Philosophy

  William Shakespeare (1820). “Select Plays of William Shakespeare: In Six Volumes. With the Corrections & Illustrations of Various Commentators. To which are Added, Notes”, p.66

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• What's the point of havin' a rapier wit if I can't use it to stab people.

  Jeph Jacques

  People, Use, Ifs

  "Questionable Content". Webcomic by Jeph Jacques, Number 1615, www.questionablecontent.net.

  5 Copy quote

  Show source

• I mean somebody with the wit and the guts to go and do and create. And, that I believe is what education is all about

  Gordon Pask

  Believe, Mean, Guts

  7 Copy quote

• In all thy humours, whether grave or mellow, Thou'rt such a touchy, testy, pleasant fellow, Hast so much wit and mirth and spleen about thee, There is no living with thee, nor without thee.

  Joseph Addison

  Life, Mirth, Graves

  'The Spectator' no. 68, 18 May 1711.

  54 Copy quote

  Show source