Abuse Quote by William Shenstone

The banalities of a great man pass for wit.

— Alexander Chase

It is the delight of vulgar talent to dazzle and to bind the beholder. But true genius seeks to defend us from itself. True…

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

Wit is often a mask. If you tear it you will find either genius irritated or cleverness juggling.

— Khalil Gibran

A little wit and a great deal of ill-nature will furnish a man for satire; but the greatest instance of wit is to commend…

— John Tillotson

Genius is, to be sure, not a matter of arbitrariness, but rather of freedom, just as wit, love, and faith, which once shall become…

— Karl Wilhelm Friedrich Schlegel

He who has provoked the shaft of wit, cannot complain that he smarts from it.

— Samuel Johnson

Wit is absolutely sociable spirit or aphoristic genius.

— Karl Wilhelm Friedrich Schlegel

Society develops wit, but its contemplation alone forms genius.

— Madame de Stael

No matter how much restriction civilization imposes on the individual, he nevertheless finds some way to circumvent it. Wit is the best safety valve…

— Sigmund Freud

This fellow is wise enough to play the fool; And to do that well craves a kind of wit: He must observe their mood…

— William Shakespeare

A man cannot wheedle nor overawe his Genius. It requires to be conciliated by nobler conduct than the world demands or can appreciate.

— Henry David Thoreau

A man often runs the risk of throwing away a witticism if he admits that it is his own.

— Jean de la Bruyere