Wit

Famous quotes containing the word wit:

    And as my wit doth best devise,
    Love’s dwelling is in ladies’ eyes,
    From whence do glance love’s piercing darts,
    That make such holes into our hearts;
    And all the world herein accord,
    Love is a great and mighty lord;
    George Peele (1559–1596)

    Indeed, there is hardly the professor in our colleges, who, if he has mastered the difficulties of the language, has proportionally mastered the difficulties of the language, has proportionally mastered the difficulties of the wit and poetry of a Greek poet, and has any sympathy to impart to the alert and heroic reader.
    Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)

    It is commonly said ... that ridicule is the best test of truth; for that it will not stick where it is not just. I deny it. A truth learned in a certain light, and attacked in certain words, by men of wit and humour, may, and often doth, become ridiculous, at least so far, that the truth is only remembered and repeated for the sake of the ridicule.
    Philip Dormer Stanhope, 4th Earl Chesterfield (1694–1773)