Wit Quotes - Page 14

• Christopher Hitchens was a wit, a charmer, and a troublemaker, and to those who knew him well, he was a gift from - dare I say it - God.

  Graydon Carter

  Dare, Troublemaker, Charmers

  "Christopher Hitchens, 1949–2011: In Memoriam" by Graydon Carter, www.vanityfair.com. December 2011.

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• Perhaps, as some wit remarked, the best proof that there is Intelligent Life in Outer Space is the fact it hasn't come here. Well, it can't hide forever - one day we will overhear it.

  Arthur C. Clarke

  Intelligent, Space, Forever

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• Being president is like running a cemetery: you've got a lot of people under you and nobody's listening.

  William J. Clinton

  Running, Wisdom, Witty

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• The genius of the Spanish people is exquisitely subtle, without being at all acute; hence there is so much humour and so little wit in their literature.

  Samuel Taylor Coleridge

  People, Genius, Literature

  Samuel Taylor Coleridge (2015). “The Complete Works of Samuel Taylor Coleridge: Poetry, Plays, Literary Essays, Lectures, Autobiography and Letters (Classic Illustrated Edition): The Entire Opus of the English poet, literary critic and philosopher, including The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, Kubla Khan, Christabel, Lyrical Ballads, Conversation Poems and Biographia Literaria”, p.2860, e-artnow

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• Wit must be foiled by wit: cut a diamond with a diamond.

  William Congreve

  Cutting, Jewelry, Diamond Rings

  William Congreve (1797). “The Double Dealer: A Comedy”, p.22

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• Come, come, leave business to idlers, and wisdom to fools: they have need of 'em: wit be my faculty, and pleasure my occupation, and let father Time shake his glass.

  William Congreve

  Father, Glasses, Idlers

  William Congreve (1753). “The Works of Mr William Congreve...”, p.4

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• If you're not very clever you should be conciliatory.

  Benjamin Disraeli

  Clever, Political, Politics

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• And new Philosophy calls all in doubt, the element of fire is quite put out; the Sun is lost, and the earth, and no mans wit can well direct him where to look for it.

  John Donne

  Philosophy, Fire, Doubt

  'An Anatomy of the World: The First Anniversary' (1611) l. 205

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• Where might is mixed with wit, there is too good an accord in a government.

  Elizabeth I

  Government, Might, Accord

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• Silence is the wit of fools.

  Anatole France

  Silence, Literature, Fool

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• Words may show a man's wit but actions his meaning.

  Benjamin Franklin

  War, Men, May

  Benjamin Franklin (1905). “The Life of Benjamin Franklin: Written by Himself. Now First Edited from Original Manuscripts and from His Printed Correspondence and Other Writings”

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• At twenty years of age the will reigns; at thirty, the wit; and at forty, the judgment.

  Benjamin Franklin

  Birthday, Time, Growing Up

  'Poor Richard's Almanac' (1741) June

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• I never dared to be radical when young for fear it would make me conservative when old.

  Robert Frost

  Conservative, Young, Radical

  "Precaution" l. 1 (1936)

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• The more wit the less courage.

  Thomas Fuller

  Courage

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• I go through stages. Randomly, I'll be attracted to a crazy rocker with tattoos. And I find that I'm extremely attracted to ambition and wit.

  Ashley Greene

  Tattoo, Crazy, Ambition

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• Libraries are reservoirs of strength, grace and wit, reminders of order, calm and continuity, lakes of mental energy, neither warm nor cold, light nor dark.

  Germaine Greer

  Dark, Lakes, Light

  Daddy,We Hardly Knew You (1989)

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• The time the moon is going back, the blood that is in a person does be weakening, but when the moon is strong, the blood that moves strong in the same way. And it to be at the full, it drags the wits along with it, the same as it drags the tide.

  Lady Gregory

  Strong, Moving, Moon

  Lady Gregory (2008). “New Irish Comedies”, p.37, Wildside Press LLC

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• I was a big fan of how Johnny Carson hosted awards shows. Dick Cavett, as well, I think did a really great job of providing a nice blend of comedy, wit and class.

  Neil Patrick Harris

  Jobs, Nice, Thinking

  "Tonys 2012: Q&A with Neil Patrick Harris on Eve of His Hosting Three-peat". "The Hollywood Reporter" Interview, www.hollywoodreporter.com. June 6, 2012.

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• In conversation, humor is worth more than wit and easiness more than knowledge.

  George Herbert

  Humor, Talking, Easiness

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• A man has to have sensibility, wit, mystery, tolerance, and strength... Romance also helps.

  Carolina Herrera

  Men, Romance, Tolerance

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• No delusion is greater than the notion that method and industry can make up for lack of mother-wit, either in science or in practical life.

  Thomas Huxley

  Life, Mother, Method

  Thomas Henry Huxley (1908). “Aphorisms and Reflections from the Works of Thomas Henry Huxley”, p.5, Library of Alexandria

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• Our country is now taking so steady a course as to show by what road it will pass to destruction, to wit: by consolidation of power first, and then corruption, its necessary consequence.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Country, Firsts, Power Corrupts

  Letter to Nathaniel Macon, 1821.

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• The time to repair the roof is when the sun is shining.

  John F. Kennedy

  Inspirational, Motivational, Positive

  Kennedy, John F. (1963). “Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: John F. Kennedy, 1962”, p.144, Best Books on

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• The Moving Finger writes; and, having writ,
  Moves on: nor all your Piety nor Wit
  Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line,
  Nor all your Tears wash out a Word of it.

  Omar Khayyam

  Moving On, Writing, Science

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  If you can keep your wits about you while all others are losing theirs, and blaming you. The world will be yours and everything in it, what's more, you'll be a man, my son.

  Rudyard Kipling

  Birthday, Son, Men

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