The next best thing to being witty one's self, is to be able to quote another's wit.

The next best thing to being witty one's self, is to be able to quote another's wit.

Great wits and valours, like great states,
Do sometimes sink with their own weights.

Great wits and valours, like great states,
Do sometimes sink with their own weights.

Humor is the only test of gravity, and gravity of humor; for a subject which will not bear raillery is read more

Humor is the only test of gravity, and gravity of humor; for a subject which will not bear raillery is suspicious, and a jest which will not bear serious examination is false wit.

To be witty is not enough. One must possess sufficient wit to avoid having too much of it.

To be witty is not enough. One must possess sufficient wit to avoid having too much of it.

Great wits are sure to madness near allied,
And thin partitions do their bounds divide.

Great wits are sure to madness near allied,
And thin partitions do their bounds divide.

He who has provoked the shaft of wit, cannot complain that he smarts from it.

He who has provoked the shaft of wit, cannot complain that he smarts from it.

Wit is a sword; it is meant to make people feel the point as well as see it.

Wit is a sword; it is meant to make people feel the point as well as see it.

It is by such encounters that wits come to know each other.
[Ger., Les beaux esprits lernen einander durch read more

It is by such encounters that wits come to know each other.
[Ger., Les beaux esprits lernen einander durch dergleichen
recontre erkennen.]

Wit has truth in it; wisecracking is simply calisthenics with words.

Wit has truth in it; wisecracking is simply calisthenics with words.