Quotes
Quotes about Wit
Conscience has no more to do with gallantry than it has with politics.
You write with ease to show your breeding,
But easy writing's curst hard reading.
Oh, rather give me commentators plain,
Who with no deep researches vex the brain;
Who from the dark and doubtful love to run,
And hold their glimmering tapers to the sun.
He wales a portion with judicious care;
And "Let us worship God," he says with solemn air.
I waive the quantum o' the sin,
The hazard of concealing;
But, och! it hardens a' within,
And petrifies the feeling!
Dweller in yon dungeon dark,
Hangman of creation, mark!
Who in widow weeds appears,
Laden with unhonoured years,
Noosing with care a bursting purse,
Baited with many a deadly curse?
He turn'd him right and round about
Upon the Irish shore,
And gae his bridle reins a shake,
With, "Adieu for evermore, my dear,
And adieu for evermore."
Rise with the lark, and with the lark to bed.
Fireside happiness, to hours of ease
Blest with that charm, the certainty to please.
Mine be a cot beside the hill;
A beehive's hum shall soothe my ear;
A willowy brook that turns a mill,
With many a fall, shall linger near.
How pure the joy, when first my hands unfold
The small, rare volume, black with tarnished gold!
You are uneasy; you never sailed with me before, I see.
You 'd scarce expect one of my age
To speak in public on the stage;
And if I chance to fall below
Demosthenes or Cicero,
Don't view me with a critic's eye,
But pass my imperfections by.
Large streams from little fountains flow,
Tall oaks from little acorns grow.
It is always right that a man should be able to render a reason for the faith that is within him.
Let every man be occupied, and occupied in the highest employment of which his nature is capable, and die with the consciousness that he has done his best.
The Smiths never had any arms, and have invariably sealed their letters with their thumbs.
Not body enough to cover his mind decently with; his intellect is improperly exposed.
You find people ready enough to do the Samaritan, without the oil and twopence.
Thank God for tea! What would the world do without tea?--how did it exist? I am glad I was not born before tea.
The schoolboy whips his taxed top; the beardless youth manages his taxed horse with a taxed bridle on a taxed road; and the dying Englishman, pouring his medicine, which has paid seven per cent, into a spoon that has paid fifteen per cent, flings himself back upon his chintz bed which has paid twenty-two per cent, and expires in the arms of an apothecary who has paid a license of a hundred pounds for the privilege of putting him to death.
In the midst of this sublime and terrible storm [at Sidmouth], Dame Partington, who lived upon the beach, was seen at the door of her house with mop and pattens, trundling her mop, squeezing out the sea-water, and vigorously pushing away the Atlantic Ocean. The Atlantic was roused; Mrs. Partington's spirit was up. But I need not tell you that the contest was unequal; the Atlantic Ocean beat Mrs. Partington.
And don't confound the language of the nation
With long-tailed words in osity and ation.
And finds, with keen, discriminating sight,
Black's not so black,--nor white so very white.
I 've heard of hearts unkind, kind deeds
With coldness still returning;
Alas! the gratitude of men
Hath oftener left me mourning.
The soft blue sky did never melt
Into his heart; he never felt
The witchery of the soft blue sky!
