Wit Quotes - Page 30

• All Kings, and all their favorites, All glory of honors, beauties, wits, The sun itself, which makes times, as they pass, Is elder by a year, now, than it was When thou and I first one another saw: All other things, to their destruction draw, Only our love hath no decay; This, no tomorrow hash, nor yesterday, Running, it never runs from us away, But truly keeps his first, last, everlasting day.

  John Donne

  Running, Kings, Elderly

  John Donne (2012). “Selected Poems”, p.25, Courier Corporation

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• The picture placed the busts between
  Adds to the thought much strength;
  Wisdom and Wit are little seen,
  But Folly's at full length.

  Jane Brereton

  Wisdom, Add, Littles

  "Specimens of British Poetesses". Book by Alexander Dyce, 1825.

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• A proverb is one man's wit and all men's wisdom.

  Bertrand Russell

  Wisdom, Men, One Man

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• 'T is an old maxim in the schools, That flattery 's the food of fools; Yet now and then your men of wit Will condescend to take a bit.

  Jonathan Swift

  School, Men, Cooking

  Jonathan Swift, Thomas Sheridan, John Nichols (1801). “The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, D.D., Dean of St. Patrick's, Dublin”, p.121

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• The Phoenix riddle hath more wit By us, we two being one, are it. So to one neutral thing both sexes fit, We die and rise the same, and prove Mysterious by this love.

  John Donne

  Love, Sex, Phoenix

  John Donne, Theodore Redpath (2009). “The Songs and Sonets of John Donne”, p.238, Harvard University Press

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• The good gardener knows with absolute certainty that if he does his part, if he gives the labour, the love, and every aid that his knowledge of his craft, experience of the conditions of his place, and exercise of his personal wit can work together to suggest, that so surely will God give the increase. Then with the honestly-earned success comes the consciousness of encouragement to renewed effort, and, as it were, an echo of the gracious words, 'Well done my good and faithful servant'.

  Gertrude Jekyll

  Love, Faith, Encouragement

  Gertrude Jekyll (2011). “Wood and Garden: Notes and Thoughts, Practical and Critical, of a Working Amateur”, p.6, Cambridge University Press

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• What do those of us who aren't tall, flawlessly sculpted adolescents do?
  Answer: Console ourselves with how relative beauty can be...
  Thank heavens for the arousing qualities of zest, intelligence,
  wit, curiosity, sweetness, passion, talent and grace.

  Diane Ackerman

  Beauty, Passion, Zest

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• I prefer to have a great time and to keep my wits about me.

  Richard Branson

  Fun, Adventure, Great Times

  Richard Branson (1999). “Losing my virginity: how I've survived, had fun, and made a fortune doing business my way”, Crown Business

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• I meditate for the last time on this mountain that is bare, though others all around are white with snow. Like the bare peak of the koan, this one is not different from myself. I know this mountain because I am this mountain, I can feel it breathing at this moment, as its grass tops stray against the snows. If the snow leopard should leap from the rock above and manifest itself before me - S-A-A-O! - then in that moment of pure fright, out of my wits, I might truly perceive it, and be free.

  Peter Matthiessen

  Time, Nature, Rocks

  Peter Matthiessen (1998). “Nine-Headed Dragon River: Zen Journals 1969-1982”, p.89, Shambhala Publications

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• Those who are born of parents broken with old age, or of such as are not yet ripe or are too young, or of drunkards, soft or effeminate men, want a great and liberal ingenuity or wit.

  Thomas Willis

  Broken Heart, Men, Parent

  "Psychological problems in mental deficiency" by Seymour B. Sarason, p. 211, 1969.

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• The Drab Age is over. Color is coming into its own again. Until very recently people were literally scared out of their wits by color. Perhaps this was a hangover from our Puritan ancestors. But whatever the reason, brown, grays and neutrals were the only shades considered 'safe.' Now we know that lovely, clear colors have a vital effect on our mental happiness. Modern doctors and psychiatrists are convinced of this!

  Dorothy Draper

  Hangover, Doctors, Color

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• I like a very dry wit, not the big kind of humor like Robin Williams. I don't think I'm capable of that.

  Chris Cooper

  Thinking, Robins, Dry

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• Unhappy is that Grandeur which makes us too great to be good; and that Wit which sets us at a distance from true Wisdom.

  Mary Astell

  Distance, Unhappy, Be Good

  Mary Astell, Patricia Springborg (1996). “Astell: Political Writings”, p.34, Cambridge University Press

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• As we celebrate President Reagan's remarkable career and historic legacy, we also celebrate a man of strong character, deep conviction, unforgettable charm, and wonderful wit.

  Jim Ramstad

  Strong, Character, Men

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• He was the man who of all modern, and perhaps ancient poets, had the largest and most comprehensive soul. . . . He was naturally learn'd; he needed not the spectacles of books to read Nature; he looked inwards, and found her there. . . . He is many times flat, insipid; his comic wit degenerating in to clenches, his serious swelling into bombast. But he is always great, when some occasion is presented to him.

  John Dryden

  Book, Men, Soul

  'An Essay of Dramatic Poesy' (1668) on Shakespeare

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• The great secret of succeeding in conversation is to admire little, to hear much; always to distrust our own reason, and sometimes that of our friends; never to pretend to wit, but to make that of others appear as much as possibly we can; to hearken to what is said and to answer to the purpose.

  Benjamin Franklin

  Loss, Secret, Purpose

  Benjamin Franklin “Poor Richard Day by Day”, Lulu.com

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• And new philosophy calls all in doubt, The element of fire is quite put out; The sun is lost, and the earth, and no man's wit Can well direct him where to look for it. And freely men confess that this world's spent, When in the planets, and the firmament They seek so many new; then see that this Is crumbled out again to his atomies. 'Tis all in pieces, all coherence gone; All just supply, and all relation: Prince, subject, Father, Son, are things forgot.

  John Donne

  Father, Philosophy, Son

  John Donne, Henry Alford (1839). “The Works of John Donne, D.D. Dean of Saint Paul's, 1621-1631: With a Memoir of His Life”, p.491

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• Men grind and grind in the mill of a truism, and nothing comes out but what was put in. But the moment they desert the tradition for a spontaneous thought, then poetry, wit, hope, virtue, learning, anecdote, and all flock to their aid.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Hope, Learning, Men

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson (Illustrated)”, p.1136, Delphi Classics

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• Who, born for the universe, narrow'd his mind, And to party gave up what was meant for mankind; Though fraught with all learning, yet straining his throat To persuade Tommy Townshend to lend him a vote. Who too deep for his hearers still went on refining, And thought of convincing while they thought of dining: Though equal to all things, for all things unfit; Too nice for a statesman, too proud for a wit.

  Oliver Goldsmith

  Nice, Party, Learning

  'Retaliation' (1774) l. 29 (on Edmund Burke)

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• Jigging veins of rhyming mother wits.

  Christopher Marlowe

  Mother, Veins, Rhyming

  'Tamburlaine the Great' (performed c.1588, published 1590) pt. 1, prologue

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• Alan Ginsberg was fabulous. The man is so filled with energy. He's 65 years old and he's just loaded with energy and charm and wit and his mind is constantly racing.

  Ray Manzarek

  Men, Years, Racing

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• That's the old ecological tale that explains humans' inability to fully appreciate global warming. To wit: if you drop a frog in a pan of hot water, it jumps out. If you drop it in a pan of cold water, then turn the heat up slowly, you can roast it to death.

  Clive Thompson

  Funny, Animal, Appreciate

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• It is a poor wit who lives by borrowing the words, decisions, mien, inventions and actions of others.

  Johann Kaspar Lavater

  Decision, Action, Poor

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• Books are never out of humour; never envious or jealous, they answer all questions with readiness; ... they teach us how to live and how to die; they dispel melancholy by their mirth, and amuse by their wit; they prepare the soul to suffer everything and desire nothing; they introduce us to ourselves.

  Holbrook Jackson

  Book, Jealous, Soul

  Holbrook Jackson (1950). “The Anatomy of Bibliomania”, p.85, University of Illinois Press

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• Moral sentences appear ostentatious and tumid, when they have no greater occasions than the journey of a wit to his home town: yet such pleasures and such pains make up the general mass of life; and as nothing is little to him that feels it with gre

  Samuel Johnson

  Pain, Home, Journey

  James Boswell, Samuel Johnson (1799). “Life of Johnson: Including Boswell's Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides and Johnson's Diary of a Journey Into North Wales”, p.429

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