Moral sentences appear ostentatious and tumid, when they have no greater occasions than the journey of a wit to his home town:… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
And here, I believe, the wit is generally misunderstood. In reality, it lies in desiring another to kiss your a-- for having… — Henry Fielding Copy Share Image
When your dawn theater sounds to clear your sinuses: don't delay. Jump. Those voices may be gone before you hit the shower… — Ray Bradbury Copy Share Image
What I wanted to do was slap him down a bit with wit and words. Grammar and vocabulary as a weapon. But… — Charles Frazier Copy Share Image
I am obnoxious to each carping tongue/ Who says my hand a needle better fits./ A poet's pen all scorn I should… — Anne Bradstreet Copy Share Image
Coffee falls into the stomach... ideas begin to move, things remembered arrive at full gallop... the shafts of wit start up like… — Honore de Balzac Copy Share Image
We pay just as dearly for our triumphs as we do for our defeats. Go ahead and fail. But fail with wit,… — Bruce Barton Copy Share Image
Metaphor is, as a common feature of linguistic practice, an incidental expediency, a homely administering of first-aid by mother-wit to jams or… — Laura Riding Copy Share Image
Truth! why shall every wretch of letters Dare to speak truth against his betters! Let ragged virtue stand aloof, Nor mutter accents… — Charles Churchill Copy Share Image
A man of remarkable genius may afford to pass by a piece of wit, if it happen to border on abuse. A… — William Shenstone Copy Share Image
Wit generally succeeds more from being happily addressed than from its native poignancy. A jest, calculated to spread at a gaming-table, may… — Oliver Goldsmith Copy Share Image
“M'sieur, I am as a slave to my wife." He kissed the tips of his fingers. "I am as the dirt beneath… — Georgette Heyer Copy Share Image
Books are never out of humour; never envious or jealous, they answer all questions with readiness; ... they teach us how to… — Holbrook Jackson Copy Share Image
Laugh not too much; the witty man laughs least: For wit is news only to ignorance. Lesse at thine own things laugh;… — George Herbert Copy Share Image
So much of what passes for conversation today is degraded. It's either about one-upmanship, or dreary trivia. Even the cut and thrust… — Theodore Zeldin Copy Share Image
Wit isn't a useful instrument of defense; it may make a short-run appeal, but it creates a backlash- one saw this in… — Diana Trilling Copy Share Image
The history of imitation of the older literature, particularly abroad, has among other advantages this one, that the important concepts of unintentional… — Karl Wilhelm Friedrich Schlegel Copy Share Image
When a man's verses cannot be understood, nor a man's good wit seconded with the forward child understanding, it strikes a man… — William Shakespeare Copy Share Image
Although it has been said by men of more wit than wisdom, and perhaps more malice than either, that women are naturally… — Mary Astell Copy Share Image
“Ah, but I’m not a gentleman,” said the Marquis. “I have it on the best of authority that I am only a… — Georgette Heyer Copy Share Image
To have a reputation for being noble, she thought, is more confining than to be known as a wit. On the rare… — Libbie Block Copy Share Image
So that the life of a writer, whatever he might fancy to the contrary, was not so much a state of composition,… — Laurence Sterne Copy Share Image
Wit is something more than a gymnastic trick of the intellect; true wit implies a beam of thought into the essence of… — Arthur Lynch Copy Share Image
A well-read writer, with good taste, is one who has the command of the wit of other men; he searches where knowledge… — Isaac D'Israeli Copy Share Image
Come Sleep! Oh Sleep, the certain knot of peace, the baiting-place of wit, the balm of woe, the poor man's wealth, the… — Philip Sidney Copy Share Image
Mass communication--wonder as it may be technologically and something to be appreciated and valued--presents us wit a serious daner, the danger of… — Rollo May Copy Share Image
“What you did tonight was clever,” Wit said. “You turned an attack into a promise. The wisest of men know that to… — Brandon Sanderson Copy Share Image
“It was a very proper wedding. The bride was elegantly dressed---the two bridemaids were duly inferior---her father gave her away---her mother stood… — Jane Austen Copy Share Image
That's the old ecological tale that explains humans' inability to fully appreciate global warming. To wit: if you drop a frog in… — Clive Thompson Copy Share Image
Perhaps, as some wit remarked, the best proof that there is Intelligent Life in Outer Space is the fact it hasn't come… — Arthur C. Clarke Copy Share Image
The Penny Post will do more for the circulation of ideas, for the fostering of domestic affections, for the humanizing of the… — Harriet Martineau Copy Share Image
...he had a fascinating technique of gnawing his cigar from one corner of his mouth to the other, as if his teeth… — Leslie Ford Copy Share Image
Humans are an infant species, a mere 150,000 years old. But, armed with a massive brain, we've not only survived, we've used… — David Suzuki Copy Share Image
As every inquiry which regards religion is of the utmost importance, there are two questions in particular which challenge our attention, to… — David Hume Copy Share Image
I have long admired Caroline Leavitt's probing insight into people, her wit and compassion, her ability to find humor in dark situations,… — Dan Chaon Copy Share Image
