Jest Quotes - Page 6

• Wit generally succeeds more from being happily addressed than from its native poignancy. A jest, calculated to spread at a gaming-table, may be received with, perfect indifference should it happen to drop in a mackerel-boat.

  Oliver Goldsmith

  Perfect, May, Tables

  Oliver Goldsmith (1841). “Essays”, p.3

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• Certain streets have an atmosphere of their own, a sort of universal fame and the particular affection of their citizens. One of such streets is the Cannebiere, and the jest: "If Paris had a Cannebiere, it would be a little Marseilles" is the jocular expression of municipal pride. I, too, I have been under the spell. For me it has been a street leading into the unknown.

  Joseph Conrad

  Book, Pride, Paris

  Joseph Conrad (2016). “The Arrow of Gold”, p.7, Joseph Conrad

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• you can't fit the same religion to every man any mo' than you can the same pair of breeches. The big man takes the big breeches an' the little man takes the small ones, an' it's jest the same with religion. It may be cut after one pattern, but it's might apt to get its shape from the wearer inside. Why, thar ain't any text so peaceable that it ain't drawn blood from somebody.

  Ellen Glasgow

  Cutting, Men, Blood

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• But jest apart--what virtue canst thou trace
  In that broad trim that hides thy sober face?
  Does that long-skirted drab, that over-nice
  And formal clothing, prove a scorn of vice?
  Then for thine accent--what in sound can be
  So void of grace as dull monotony?

  George Crabbe

  Nice, Long, Grace

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• Know, O beloved, that man was not created in jest or at random, but marvelously made and for some great end. Although he is not form everlasting, yet he lives for ever; and though his body is mean and earthly, yet his spirit is lofty and divine

  Al-Ghazali

  Mean, Men, Body

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• It is depressing to hear the unfortunate or dying man jest.

  Anton Chekhov

  Death, Depressing, Men

  "On the Road". Short story by Anton Chekhov, 1886.

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• Many true words are spoken in jest.

  Dinah Maria Murlock Craik

  Humor, True Words

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• Oh sirs, deal with sin as sin, and speak of heaven and hell as they are, and not as if you were in jest.

  John Flavel

  Heaven, Sin, Speak

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• No single, individual moment is in and of itself unendurable.

  David Foster Wallace

  Inspirational, Powerful, Infinite Jest

  "Infinite Jest". Book by David Foster Wallace, 1996.

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• The really important kind of freedom involves...being able truly to care about other people...

  David Foster

  Inspirational, Freedom, Sacrifice

  David Foster Wallace’s Commencement Address at Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio, www.1843magazine.com. September 18, 2008.

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• Try to let what is unfair teach you.

  David Foster

  Trying, Infinite Jest, Unfair

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• I'm a big believer that your word is your wand. You know how people say things like, 'Oh my gosh, I'm such an idiot.' I don't say things like that anymore. Those put-downs, even if they're in jest, are little bullets of negativity that you don't need in your life.

  Mariska Hargitay

  People, Negativity, Needs

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• Bees are not as busy as we think they are. They just can't buzz any slower.

  Kin Hubbard

  Thinking, Bees, Buzz

  "Reading I've Liked : A Personal Selection Drawn from Two Decades of Reading and Reviewing, Presented with an Informal Prologue and Various Commentaries". Book by Clifton Fadiman, 1941.

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• Life seems a jest of Fate's contriving.

  James Russell Lowell

  Life, Fate, Conniving

  James Russell Lowell (1871). “The poetical works of James Russell Lowell”, p.430

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• There is such a thing as raw, unalloyed, agendaless kindness.

  David Foster Wallace

  Kindness, Anxiety Attacks, Infinite Jest

  David Foster Wallace (2011). “Infinite Jest”, p.146, Hachette UK

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• Many get the repute of being witty but thereby lose the credit of being sensible. Jest has its little hour, seriousness should have all the rest.

  Baltasar Gracian

  Witty, Should Have, Credit

  Baltasar Gracian, Baltasar Gracián y Morales (2004). “The Art of Worldly Wisdom”, p.44, Shambhala Publications

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• The universe does not jest with us, but is in earnest.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Doe, Earnest, Universe

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (2015). “Essays of Ralph Waldo Emerson - Poetry and Imagination”, p.1, Editora Dracaena

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• Haste thee, Nymph, and bring with thee Jest, and youthful Jollity, Quips, and Cranks, and wanton Wiles, Nods, and Becks, and wreathed Smiles, Such as hang on Hebe's cheek, And love to live in dimple sleek; Sport that wrinkled Care derides, And Laughter holding both his sides.

  John Milton

  Sports, Laughter, Nymphs

  John Milton, John Hunter (1864). “Milton's Comus, L'allegro, and Il Penseroso: With Numerous Illustrative Notes &c”, p.59

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• All great humorists are sad... I cannot help seeing beyond the tinsel of humour, and recognising the pitiful basis of jest - the world is indeed comic, but the joke is on mankind.

  H. P. Lovecraft

  World, Helping, Comic

  "Collected Essays, Volume 5: Philosophy" edited by S. T. Joshi, (p. 54), 2006.

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• The raillery which is consistent with good-breeding is a gentle animadversion of some foible, which, while it raises the laugh in the rest of the company, doth not put the person rallied out of countenance, or expose him to shame or contempt. On the contrary, the jest should be so delicate that the object of it should be capable of joining in the mirth it occasions.

  Henry Fielding

  Joining In, Laughing, Mirth

  Henry Fielding, Thomas Roscoe (1851). “The Works of Henry Fielding: Complete in One Volume”, p.643

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• It is good to jest, but not to make a trade of jesting.

  Elizabeth I

  Trade

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• I don't believe that there is a human creature in his senses, arrived to maturity, that at some time or other has not been carried away by this passion (sc. envy) in good earnest; yet I never met with any one who dared own he was guilty of it but in jest.

  Bernard de Mandeville

  Believe, Passion, Maturity

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• The human animal ... is ... neither male nor female ... And if I am allowed to jest a little in passing, I have a joke that is not altogether irrelevant: nothing resembles a male cat on the windowsill more than a female cat.

  Marie de Gournay

  Cat, Animal, Males

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• Jest not with the eye or with Religion.

  George Herbert

  Eye

  George Herbert, Christopher Harvey, George Gilfillan (1857). “The poetical works of George Herbert”, p.297

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• Some had rather lose their friend then their Jest.

  George Herbert

  Loses

  George Herbert (1874). “The Complete Works of George Herbert: Prose”, p.373

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