Quotes about Wit
Ah Fate, cannot a man Be wise without a beard? East, West, from Beer to Dan, Say, was it never heard That wisdom might in youth be gotten, Or wit be ripe before 't was rotten?
— Ralph Waldo Emerson
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 tumbling into it
— Samuel Johnson
When I left the dining room after sitting next to Mr. Gladstone, I thought he was the cleverest man in England. But after sitting next to Mr. Disraeli, I thought I was the cleverest woman in England.
— Benjamin Disraeli
Far be it from me to insult the pun! I honor it in proportion to its merits; nothing more. All the most august, the most sublime, the most charming of humanity, and perhaps outside of humanity, have made puns.
— Victor Hugo
There is nothing harder to explain than humor.
— Milan Kundera
Like the saying goes: They passed out the brains, he thought they said trains and he missed his.
— Barbara Kingsolver
We dare not trust our wit for making our house pleasant to our friend, so we buy ice cream.
— Ralph Waldo Emerson
The first ingredient in conversation is truth, the next good sense, the third good humor, and the fourth wit.
— William Temple
I have been assaulted by cleverness on all fronts.
— Bill Clinton
I did not know that mankind were suffering for want of gold. I have seen a little of it. I know that it is very malleable, but not so malleable as wit. A grain of gold will gild a great surface, but not so much as a grain of wisdom.
— Henry David Thoreau
Sometimes we are inclined to class those who are once-and-a-half witted with the half-witted, because we appreciate only a third part of their wit.
— Henry David Thoreau
With respect to wit, I learned that there was not much difference between the half and the whole.
— Henry David Thoreau