Jest Quotes - Page 3

• Chaos of thought and passion, all confused; Still by himself abused or disabused; Created half to rise, and half to fall; Great lord of all things, yet a prey to all; Sole judge of truth, in endless error hurled,- The glory, jest, and riddle of the world.

  Alexander Pope

  Truth, Confused, Fall

  An Essay on Man Epistle 2, l. 15 (1733)

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• There's many a true word spoken in jest.

  James Joyce

  Truth, True Words

  James Joyce, Mark Gaipa, Sean Latham, Robert Scholes (2015). “The Little Review "Ulysses"”, p.292, Yale University Press

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• A bitter jest, when it comes too near the truth, leaves a sharp sting behind it.

  Tacitus

  Inspirational, Bitter, Behinds

  "Annales". XV. 68, AD 117.

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• Twas the saying of an ancient sage that humour was the only test of gravity, and gravity of humour. For a subject which would not bear raillery was suspicious; and a jest which would not bear a serious examination was certainly false wit.

  Anthony Ashley Cooper, 1st Earl of Shaftesbury

  Sage, Examination, Tests

  "Characteristics", Letter Concerning Enthusiasm, Part I. Sect. V, as quoted in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations, p. 673-74, 1922.

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• Of all the grief's that harass the distressed; sure the most bitter is a scornful jest.

  Samuel Johnson

  Grief, Bitter, Scorn

  Samuel Johnson, Thomas Park (1811). “The poetical works of Samuel Johnson: collated with the best editions”, p.14

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• Speak not injurious words neither in jest nor earnest; scoff at none, although they give occasion.

  George Washington

  Giving, Brilliant, Speak

  "The Writings of George Washington".

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• I have learned to look upon each little hindrance as a jest and each great one as a foreshadowing of victory.

  Lucy Maud Montgomery

  Victory, Littles, Looks

  Lucy Maud Montgomery (2016). “ANNE SHIRLEY Complete Series - ALL 14 Books in One Volume: Anne of Green Gables, Anne of Avonlea, Anne of the Island, Rainbow Valley, The Story Girl, Chronicles of Avonlea and more: Including the Memoirs & Letters of Lucy Maud Montgomery”, p.635, e-artnow

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• [Luke, holding stormtrooper helmet.] Alas, poor stormtrooper, I knew ye not,/ yet have I taken both uniform and life/ From thee. What manner of a man wert thou?/ A man of inf'nite jest or cruelty?/ A man with helpmate and with children too?/ A man who hath his Empire serv'd with pride?/ A man, perhaps, who wish'd for perfect peace?/ What'er thou wert, goodman, thy pardon grant/ Unto the one who took thy place: e'en me.

  Ian Doescher

  Children, Taken, Pride

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• I condemn all statements - made in sincerity or jest - that threaten or suggest the use of violence against the president of the United States or any other public official. Such rhetoric cannot and will not be tolerated.

  Paul Broun

  President, United States, Use

  "Did Rep. Paul Broun Flub 'Who is going to shoot Obama?' query?". Statement, www.csmonitor.com. February 25, 2011.

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• They's a heap more to God's will than death, disapoint-ment, and like thet. Hit's God's will for us to be good and do good, love one another, be forgivin'..." He laughed. "I reckon I ain't very forgivin', son. I can forgive a fool, but I ain't inner-rested in coddlin' hypocrites. Well anyhow, folks who think God's will jest has to do with sufferin' and dyin', they done missed the whole point.

  Olive Ann Burns

  Good Love, Hypocrite, Son

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• often when I thought I joked, I told the truth, afraid to speak it except in jest.

  Lucy Freeman

  Truth, Speak

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• I also readily admit that there are animals, taken in the ordinary sense, that are incomparably larger than those we know of, and I have sometimes said in jest that there might be a system like ours which is the pocketwatch of some enormous giant.

  Gottfried Leibniz

  Taken, Animal, Ordinary

  Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (2015). “Leibniz: Philosophical Essays”, p.170, Hackett Publishing

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• Jest with your equals.

  Bion of Smyrna

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• Death is not earnest in the same way the eternal is. To the earnestness of death belongs precisely that remarkable capacity for awakening, that resonance of a profound mockery which, detached from the thought of the eternal, is an empty and often brash jest, but together with the thought of the eternal is just what it should be, utterly different from the insipid solemness which least of all captures and holds a thought with tension like that of death.

  Soren Kierkegaard

  Profound, Together, Different

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• Love is a sacred mystery.
  To those who love, it remains forever wordless;
  But to those who do not love, it may be but a heartless jest.

  Khalil Gibran

  Life, Love Is, Forever

  Khalil Gibran (2007). “Kahlil Gibran: Masterpieces”

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• A prison! heav'ns, I loath the hated name,
  Famine's metropolis, the sink of shame,
  A nauseous sepulchre, whose craving womb
  Hourly inters poor mortals in its tomb;
  By ev'ry plague and ev'ry ill possess'd,
  Ev'n purgatory itself to thee 's a jest.

  Tom Brown, Jr.

  Names, Prison, Shame

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• ...Having no recourse, I feel back on Shakespeare. Leif would recognize it and understand the context properly. With my remaining few seconds of consciousness, I quoted Benedick from Much Ado About Nothing, who spoke these words to his former friend: "you are a Villain: I jest not." and then I collapsed into a pool of my own blood.

  Kevin Hearne

  Blood, Consciousness, Pool

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• The Irish always jest even though they jest with tears.

  Katharine Tynan

  Tears, Ireland

  Katharine Tynan (1922). “The Wandering Years”

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• What if sometimes there is no choice about what to love? What if the temple comes to Mohammed? What if you just love? without deciding? You just do: you see her and in that instant are lost to sober account-keeping and cannot choose but to love?

  David Foster Wallace

  Choices, What If, Temples

  David Foster Wallace (2011). “Infinite Jest”, p.84, Hachette UK

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• I really, really love children and I think probably among children is when I feel mostly berated. It's not like I feel like oh, there's some children here. I have to tone it down. I go nuts with children especially when I ain't got none. So when I'm round my mates' children, I jest them kids up first. I swear at them, I get more worked up, I say crazy stuff to them, fill their heads with nonsense and then I leave them.

  Russell Brand

  Children, Crazy, Kids

  MoviesOnline Interview, www.moviesonline.ca.

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• Man is a living lie--a bitter jest Upon himself--a conscious grain of sand Lost in a desert of unconsciousness.

  Amos Bronson Alcott

  Lying, Men, Desert

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• In France everything is a matter for jest. People make quips about the scaffold, about Napoleon's defeat on the banks of The Beresina, and about the barricades of our revolutions. So, at the assizes of the Last Judgment, there will always be a Frenchmen to crack a joke.

  Honore de Balzac

  People, Cracks, Matter

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• Many wise words are spoken in jest, but they don't compare with the number of stupid words spoken in earnest.

  Sam Levenson

  Funny, Wise, Stupid

  Sam Levenson (2016). “You Don't Have to Be in Who's Who to Know What's What: The Choice Wit and Wisdom of Sam Levenson”, p.86, Open Road Media

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• It is a melancholy consideration that there should be several among us so hardened and deluded as to think an oath a proper subject for a jest; and to make this, which is one of the most solemn acts of religion, an occasion of mirth. Yet such is the depravation of our manners at present, that nothing is more frequent than to hear profligate men ridiculing, to the best of their abilities, these sacred pledges of their duty and allegiance; and endeavouring to be witty upon themselves, for daring to prevaricate with God and man.

  Joseph Addison

  Witty, Men, Thinking

  Joseph Addison (1837). “The Tatler. The Guardian. The Freeholder. The Whig-examiner. The lover. Dialogues upon the usefulness of ancient medals. Remarks on several parts of Italy, etc. The present state of the war. The late trial and conviction of Count Tariff. The evidences of the Christian religion. Essay on Virgil's Georgics. Poems on several occasions. Translations from Ovid's Metamorphoses. Notes on some of the foregoing stories in Ovid's Metamorphoses. Poemata. Rosamond. Cato. The drummer”, p.181

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• Life is too transcendentally humorous for a man not to take it seriously. Compared with it, Death is but a shallow jest.

  William John Locke

  Life, Humorous, Men

  William John Locke (1925). “Simon the Jester”, p.322, Library of Alexandria

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