Wit Quotes

“The dullness of the fool is the whetstone of the wits.”

“Twas a clever quibble. Here, a garment for it.”

“They have a plentiful lack of wit.”

“Great men may jest with saints; 'tis wit in them; But, in the less foul profanation.”

“Petruchio: Come, come, you wasp; i' faith, you are too angry. Katherine: If I be waspish, best beware my sting. Petruchio: My remedy is then, to pluck it out. Katherine: Ay, if the fool could find where it lies. Petruchio: Who knows not where a wasp does wear his sting? In his tail. Katherine: In his tongue. Petruchio: Whose tongue? Katherine: Yours, if you talk of tails: and so farewell. Petruchio: What, with my tongue in your tail? Nay, come again, Good Kate; I am a gentleman.”

“I am a great eater of beef, and I believe that does harm to my wit.”

“thy wit is a very bitter sweeting; it is a most sharp sauce.”

“Sweet Beatrice, wouldst thou come when I called thee? BEATRICE Yea, signior, and depart when you bid me. BENEDICK O, stay but till then! BEATRICE 'Then' is spoken; fare you well now... (Much Ado About Nothing)”

“Make the doors upon a woman's wit, and it will out at the casement; shut that, and 'twill out at the key-hole; stop that, 'twill fly with the smoke out at the chimney.”

“This rudeness is a sauce to his good wit, Which gives men stomach to digest his words With better appetite.”

“Polonius: Do you know me, my lord? Hamlet: Excellent well. You are a fishmonger.”

“DON PEDRO Come, lady, come; you have lost the heart of Signior Benedick. BEATRICE Indeed, my lord, he lent it me awhile; and I gave him use for it, a double heart for his single one: marry, once before he won it of me with false dice, therefore your grace may well say I have lost it. DON PEDRO You have put him down, lady, you have put him down. BEATRICE So I would not he should do me, my lord, lest I should prove the mother of fools.”

“Against my will I am sent to bid you come in to dinner. BENEDICK Fair Beatrice, I thank you for your pains. BEATRICE I took no more pains for those thanks than you take pains to thank me: if it had been painful, I would not have come. BENEDICK You take pleasure then in the message? BEATRICE Yea, just so much as you may take upon a knife's point ... You have no stomach, signior: fare you well. Exit BENEDICK Ha! 'Against my will I am sent to bid you come in to dinner;' there's a double meaning in that... (Much Ado About Nothing)”

“He uses his folly like a stalking-horse, and under the presentation of that he shoots his wit.”

“A sentence is but a cheveril glove to a good wit; How quickly the wrong side may be turned outward!”

“If you spend word for word with me, I shall make your wit bankrupt.”

“Better a witty fool than a foolish wit.”

“[S]ince brevity is the soul of wit, And tediousness the limbs and outward flourishes, I will be brief.”

“Let me, if not by birth, have lands by wit;All with me's meet that I can fashion fit.”

“I would challenge you to a battle of wits, but I see you are unarmed!”

“I am not only witty in myself, but the cause that wit is in other men.”

“There's many a man hath more hair than wit.”

“How now, wit! Whither wander you?”

“Wit makes its own welcome, and levels all distinctions.”

“My father's wit, and my mother's tongue, assist me!”