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Wit Quotes

“What are the precise characteristics of an epigram it is not easy to define. It differs from a joke, in the fact that the wit of the latter dies in the words, and cannot therefore be conveyed in another language; while an epigram is a wit of ideas, and hence, is translatable. Like aphorisms, songs and sonnets, it is occupied with some single point, small and manageable; but whilst a song conveys a sentiment, a sonnet a poetical, and an aphorism a moral reflection, an epigram expresses a contrast.”

IdeasFactsSongDiesLanguageEasyMoralJokesReflectionWitCharacteristicsLatterSentimentsContrastAphorismPreciseSonnetEpigramsManageable
Author:William Matthews
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“If we did not know all His retorts by heart, if we had not taken the sting out of them by incessant repetition in the accents of the pulpit, and if we had not somehow got it into our heads that brains were rather reprehnsible, we should reckon Him among the greatest wits of all time. Nobody else, in three brief years, has achieved such an output of epigram.”

IfsKnowsShouldYearsHeartThreeJesusChristBrainTakenJesus ChristWitAll TimeAccentsRepetitionPulpitOutputEpigramsIncessantRetorts
Author:Dorothy L. Sayers
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“you can give it a long name if you like, but I'm an old-fashioned woman and I call it mother-wit, and it's so rare for a man to have it that if he does you write a book about him and call him Sherlock Holmes.”

IfsMenGivingWritingLongDoeBookMotherNamesWitOld FashionedHolmesMother Wit
Book:The Lord Peter Wimsey Mysteries: Whose Body?, Clouds of Witness, and Unnatural Death
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“Some feminist critics debate whether we take our meaning and sense of self from language and in that process become phallocentric ourselves, or if there is a use of language that is, or can be, feminine. Some, like myself, think that language is itself neither male nor female; it is creatively expansive enough to be of use to those who have the wit and art to wrest from it their own significance. Even the dread patriarchs have not found a way to 'own' language any more than they have found a way to 'own' earth (though many seem to believe that both are possible).”

IfsThinkingWayBelieveArtSelfEnoughUseSeemsEarthFoundLanguageProcessFemaleCriticsMalesFeministWitDebateSignificanceFeminineDreadSense Of SelfUse Of Language
Book:Off the Reservation: Reflections on Boundary-busting Border-crossing Loose Canons
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“Books, of which the principles are diseased or deformed, must be kept on the shelf of the scholar, as the man of science preserves monsters in glasses. They belong to the study of the mind's morbid anatomy, and ought to be accurately labelled. Voltaire will still be a wit, notwithstanding he is a scoffer; and we may admire the brilliant spots and eyes of the viper, if we acknowledge its venom and call it a reptile.”

IfsMenMindMayStillsBookEyePrinciplesStudyHe ManOughtGlassesBrilliantWitMonstersAdmireSpotsPreservesAcknowledgeScholarShelvesAnatomyMorbidDiseasedVenomReptilesVipersScoffers
Author:Robert Aris Willmott
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“swearing is, as I have said, learning to the ignorant, eloquence to the blockhead, vivacity to the stupid, and wit to the coxcomb.”

SaidStupidWitIgnorantEloquenceSwearingBlockheadsVivacity
Book:Felicia To Charlotte: Being Letters From A Young Lady in the Country, To Her Friend in Town : Containing A Series of the Most Interesting Events, Interspersed with Moral Reflections ...
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“Just as it is the province of science to find out what the facts of life are, to classify them and use them to verify or discredit whatever theory may have been advanced concerning them, so it is the province of a living theology to be constantly seeking from God the wit and wisdom that will interpret anew and more truly the parable of life.”

MayHas BeensFactsUseReligionTheorySeekingWitTheologyFacts Of LifeProvincesParablesDiscreditVerifyWit And Wisdom
Book:Immortality: An Essay in Discovery, Co-ordinating Scientific, Psychical, and Biblical Research
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“In I Praise My Destroyer, Diane Ackerman demonstrates once again her love for the specific language that rises from the juncture of self and the natural world, and her skillful use of that language. Whether she turns her attention to the act of eating an apricot 'the color of shame and dawn,' or to 'the omnipotence of light,' or to grief when 'All the greens of summer have blown apart,' her linking of unique images, her energetic wit and whimsy, her compassionate investment in life, always bring new pleasures and perceptions to the reader.”

WorldSelfUseLightTurnsLanguageNaturalPleasureGriefAttentionColorReaderPerceptionEatingSummerUniquePraiseShameInvestmentWitDawnCompassionateNatural WorldEnergeticSkillfulDestroyersOmnipotenceWhimsyJunctureApricots
Author:Pattiann Rogers
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“The novella is at once the most elegant and demanding form: a writer must balance the looseness of a novel with the concision of a short story, a feat that only the bravest and most talented of us can manage. In Brazil, Jesse Lee Kercheval proves, yet again, that she is exactly the right writer for the job. A wild American picaresque, Brazil snaps along briskly, yet feels full-fleshed, and brims with a sly wit and grace.”

FeelsStoriesJobsFormNovelGraceBalanceProveWitManageShort StoryElegantSnapsBrazilFeatsSlyLoosenessPicaresque
Author:Lauren Groff
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“If he who has little wit needs a master to inform his stupidity, he who has much frequently needs ten to keep in check his worldly wisdom, which might otherwise, like a high-mettled charger, toss him to the ground.”

IfsNeedsLittlesMightMastersTenStupidityWitChecksWorldlyTossWorldly Wisdom
Book:Gotthold's Emblems: or Invisible things understood by things that are made. Tr. by R. Menzies
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