Wit is the clash and reconcilement of incongruities; the meeting of extremes round a corner.
Wit, like money, bears an extra value when rung down immediately it is wanted. Men pay severely who require credit.
This man [Chesterfield] I thought had been a
lord among wits; but I find he is only a wit among lords.
Je n'ai jamais d'esprit qu'au bas de l'escalier.
I never have wit until I am below stairs.
La Bruyère, according to J. J. Rousseau.
Esprit de l'escalier, backstair wit, is credited
to M. de Tbeville by Pierre Nicole.
For use of this phrase see The King's English.
P. 32. Note.
He must be a dull Fellow indeed, whom neither
Love, Malice, nor Necessity, can inspire with
Wit.
La Bruyère—The Characters or Manners of the Present Age. Ch. IV.
A man does not please long when he has only
one species of wit.
La Rochefoucauld—Maxims. No. 438.
A small degree of wit, accompanied by good
sense, is less tiresome in the long run than a"
great amount of wit without it.
La Rochefoucauld—Maxims. No. 529.
On peut dire que son esprit brille aux depens
de sa memoire.
One may say that his wit shines at the expense of his memory.
Le Sage—Gil. Bias. III. XI. Of Carlos
Alonso de la Ventoleria.
Medio de fonte leporum
Surgit amari aliquid quod in ipsis floribus angat.
In the midst of the fountain of wit there
arises something bitter, which stings in the
very flowers.
Lucretius, rv. 1133.
| seealso = (See also Moore, Tennyson)
| topic = Wit
| page = 884
}}
{{Hoyt quote
| num =
| text = <poem>Mother Wit. (Nature's mother wit.)
Marlowe—Prologue to Tamerlaine the Great.
Pt. I. Middleton—Your five Gallants. Act
I. Sc. 1. Dryden—Ode to St. CecUia.
Spenser—Faerie Queene. Bk. IV. Canto X.
St. 21. Taming of the Shrew. Act II. Sc. 1.
Have you summoned your wits from wool-gathering?
Thos. Middleton—The Family of Love. Act
V. Sc. 3.
Nul n'aura de l'esprit, hors nous et nos amis.
No one shall have wit save we and our friends.
Moliere—Les Femmes Savantes. III. 2.
wrr
L'impromptu est justement la pierre de touche
de l'esprit.
Repartee is precisely the touchstone of the
man of wit.
Moliere—Les PrScieuses Ridicules. X.
La raillerie est un discours en faveur de son
esprit contre son bon naturel.
Raillery is a mode of speaking in 'favor of
one's wit at the expense of one's better nature.
Montesquieu—Pensies Diverses.
Whose wit, in the combat, as gentle as bright,
Ne'er carried a heart-stain away on its blade.
Moore—Lines on the Death of Sheridan. St. 11.
| seealso = (See also Lucretius)
| topic = Wit
| page = 884
}}
{{Hoyt quote
| num =
| text = <poem>Wit is the most rascally, contemptible, beggarly thing on the face of the earth.
Murphy—The Apprentice.
Sal Atticum.
Attic wit.
Pliny—Natural History. 31. 7. 41.
A wit with dunces, and a dunce with wits.
| author = Pope
| work = Duncwd. Bk. IV. L. 92.
| seealso = (See also Johnson)
| topic = Wit
| page = 884
}}
{{Hoyt quote
| num =
| text = <poem>You beat your pate, and fancy wit will come;
Knock as you please, there's nobody at home.
| author = Pope
| work = Epigram.
| note = Last phrase in Dickens—Nicholas Nickleby.
| seealso = (See also Cowper)
| topic = Wit
| page = 884
}}
{{Hoyt quote
| num =
| text = <poem>For wit and judgment often are at strife,
Though meant each other's aid, like man and wife.
So modest plainness sets off sprightly wit,
For works may have more wit than does 'em good,
As bodies perish through excess of blood.
How the wit brightens! how the style refines!
If faith itself has different dresses worn,
What wonder modes in wit should take their
turn?
| author = Pope
| work = Essay on Criticism. L. 446.
True wit is nature to advantage dress'd, "
What of' was thought, but ne'er so well ex | author = Pope
| work = Essay on Criticism. Pt. II. L. 97.
Wit is that which has been often thought, but
never before was well expressed.
As paraphrased by Johnson—Life of Cowley.
Some men's wit is like a dark lantern, which serves their own turn and guides them their own way, but is never known (according to the Scripture phrase) either to shine forth before men, or to glorify their Father in heaven.
