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Wit Quotes by Samuel Johnson
- He who has provoked the shaft of wit, cannot complain that he smarts from it.
- I soon found that wit, like every other power, has its boundaries; that its success depends upon the aptitude of others to receive impressions; and…
- Wine gives a man nothing. It neither gives him knowledge nor wit; it only animates a man, and enables him to bring out what a…
- 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…
- 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…
- I have no more pleasure in hearing a man attempting wit and failing, than in seeing a man trying to leap over a ditch and…
- By the consultation of books, whether of dead or living authors, many temptations of petulance and opposition, which occur in oral conferences, are avoided. An…
- This man [Chesterfield], I thought, had been a Lord among wits; but I find he is only a wit among Lords.
- Many useful and valuable books lie buried in shops and libraries, unknown and unexamined, unless some lucky compiler opens them by chance, and finds an…
- Though it is evident, that not more than one age or people can deserve the censure of being more averse from learning than any other,…
- ...a man estimable for his learning, amiable for his life, and venerable for his piety. Arbuthnot was a man of great comprehension, skilful in his…
More Wit Quotes
- Wit is educated insolence. — Aristotle
- One cannot be always laughing at a man without now and then stumbling on something witty. — Jane Austen
- Good nature is more agreeable in conversation than wit and gives a certain air to the countenance which is more amiable than… — Joseph Addison
- Like a sprained ankle boy I aint nothin to play wit — Drake
- At most, the greatest persons are but great wens, and excrescences; men of wit and delightful conversation, but as morals for ornament,… — John Donne
- Wit makes its own welcome, and levels all distinctions. No dignity, no learning, no force of character, can make any stand against… — Ralph Waldo Emerson
- If a man's wit be wandering, let him study the mathematics. — Francis Bacon
- I love to have battles of the wits with people that can dish fast and dirty - and it leads to problems… — Alton Brown