Wit Sayings and Quotes

Below you will find our collection of inspirational, wise, and humorous old wit quotes, wit sayings, and wit proverbs, collected over the years from a variety of sources.

Wit is more necessary than beauty; and I think no young woman ugly that has it, and no handsome woman agreeable without it. William Wycherley
Wit ought to be a glorious treat like caviar; never spread it about like marmalade. Noel Coward
We are made wise not by the recollection of our past, but by the responsibility for our future. George Bernard Shaw
Wit consists in knowing the resemblance of things that differ, and the difference of things that are alike. Madame De Stael
Wit - the salt with which the American humorist spoils his intellectual cookery by leaving it out. Ambrose Bierce
Every witticism is an inexact thought; that which is perfectly true is imperfectly witty. Walter Savage Landor
The wit knows that his place is at the tail of a procession. Mark Twain
Wit is a dangerous weapon, even to the possessor, if he knows not how to use it discreetly. Michel de Montaigne
Great wits are to madness near allied And thin partitions do their bounds divide John Dryden
Wit is the salt of conversation, not the food. William Hazlitt
Nothing is more curious than the almost savage hostility that humor excites in those who lack it. George Saintsbury
Thy wit is a very bitter sweeting; it is a most sharp sauce. William Shakespeare
No matter how much restriction civilization imposes on the individual, he nevertheless finds some way to circumvent it. Wit is the best safety valve modern man has evolved; the more civilization, the more repression, the more need there is for wit. Sigmund Freud
Common sense and a sense of humor are the same thing, moving at different speeds. A sense of humor is just common sense, dancing. William James
Better a witty fool than a foolish wit. William Shakespeare
Wit is educated insolence. Aristotle
Wit is a form of force that leaves the limbs at rest. George Eliot
Wit beyond measure is man's greatest treasure. J.K. Rowling
Wit has truth in it; wise-cracking is simply calisthenics with words. Dorothy Parker
There is a wisdom of the head, and… there is a wisdom of the heart. Charles Dickens
Intelligence is a way of thinking, not a choice of words. Mokokoma Mokhonoana
A wit in the society of stupid people is like a damp lucifer match, the brilliant properties of which are, for the time, neutralized by the unignitable qualities of the atmosphere in which it has been misplaced. Charles William Day
Wit is the appearance, the external flash of imagination. Thus its divinity, and the witty character of mysticism. Karl Wilhelm Friedrich Schlegel
Wit is something more than a gymnastic trick of the intellect; true wit implies a beam of thought into the essence of a question, a flash that lights up a situation. Wit suggests the delicate but delightful play of a rapier in the hands of a master. Arthur Lynch
A man with a sharp wit. Someone ought to take it away from him before he cuts himself. Peter da Silva
The pendulum of the mind oscillates between sense and nonsense, not between right and wrong. Carl Gustav Jung
The well of true wit is truth itself. George Meredith
If a man's wit be wandering, let him study the mathematics. Francis Bacon
Wit is a treacherous dart. It is perhaps the only weapon with which it is possible to stab oneself in one's own back. Geoffrey Boca
Wit is a sword; it is meant to make people feel the point as well as see it. G. K. Chesterton