Wit

Wedded to will is witless.
~ William Byrd, from Psalmes, Songs & Sonnets (1611). No. 23

[A] wit should no more be sincere, than a woman constant.
~ William Congreve, The Way of the World (1700). Act I, scene xi

What, he speaks unseasonable truths sometimes, because he has not wit enough to invent an evasion?
~ William Congreve, The Way of the World (1700). Act I, scene vi

[W]it must be foiled by wit; cut a diamond with a diamond, no other way.
~ William Congreve, The Double Dealer (1694).

His wit invites you by his looks to come,
But when you knock, it never is at home.
~ William Cowper, from Poems by William Cowper of the Inner Temple, Esq. (1782). Conversation

Wit, now and then, struck smartly, shows a spark.
~ William Cowper, from Poems by William Cowper of the Inner Temple, Esq. (1782). Table Talk (written in 1781)

A nice dilemma we have here,
That calls for all our wit.
~ William Schwenck (W.S.) Gilbert, Trial by Jury (1875 opera).

Those who object to wit are envious of it.
~ William Hazlitt, Characteristics: in the Manner of Rochefoucault's Maxims (1823).

Wit is often a meagre substitute for pleasurable sensation; an effusion of spleen and petty spite at the comforts of others, from feeling none in itself.
~ William Hazlitt, Characters of Shakespear's Plays (1817). Henry IV. In Two Parts

Wit is the rarest quality to be met with among people of education, and the most common among the uneducated.
~ William Hazlitt, Characteristics: in the Manner of Rochefoucault's Maxims (1823).

Wit is the salt of conversation, not the food.
~ William Hazlitt, Lectures on the English Comic Writers (1819). On Wit and Humor

Anyone can tell the truth, but only very few of us can make epigrams.
~ W. Somerset Maugham, from A Writer's Notebook (1949).

Impropriety is the soul of wit.
~ W. Somerset Maugham, The Moon and Sixpence (1919). Chapter IV

She had a pretty gift for quotation, which is a serviceable substitute for wit.
~ W. Somerset Maugham, The Creative Impulse (1926).

Wit is the epitaph of an emotion.
~ Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche, Human, All Too Human (1878).

Wit is a happy and striking way of expressing a thought.
~ William Penn, Some Fruits of Solitude (1693). Part I. Wit

A good wit will make use of any thing.
~ William Shakespeare, King Henry IV, Part II. Act I, scene ii

Ay, sir, I have a pretty wit.
~ William Shakespeare, As You Like It. Act V, scene i

Brevity is the soul of wit.
And tediousness the limbs and outward flourishes.
~ William Shakespeare, Hamlet. Act II, scene ii

How now, wit! Whither wander you?
~ William Shakespeare, As You Like It. Act I, scene ii

I am not only witty in myself, but the cause that wit is in other men. I do here walk before thee like a sow that hath overwhelm'd all her litter but one.
~ William Shakespeare, King Henry IV, Part II

I shall ne'er be ware of mine own wit till I break my shins against it.
~ William Shakespeare, As You Like It. Act II, scene iv

Look he's winding up the watch of his wit; by and by it will strike.
~ William Shakespeare, The Tempest. Act II, scene i

None are so surely caught, when they are catch'd,
As wit turn'd fool.
~ William Shakespeare, As You Like It. Act V, scene ii

Such short-lived wits do wither as they grow.
~ William Shakespeare, Love's Labour's Lost. Act II, scene i

They have a plentiful lack of wit.
~ William Shakespeare, Hamlet. Act II, scene ii

[T]here's a skirmish of wit between them.
~ William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice. Act I, scene i

This fellow is wise enough to play the fool;
And to do that well craves a kind of wit.
~ William Shakespeare, Twelfth Night. Act III, scene i

Thou know'st we work by wit, and not by witchcraft;
And wit depends on dilatory time.
~ William Shakespeare, Othello. Act II, scene iii

What he hath scanted men in hair, he hath given them in wit.
~ William Shakespeare, The Comedy of Errors. Act II, scene ii

Wit, and it be thy will, put me into good fooling. Those wits who think they have thee do very oft prove fools, while I, who am sure I lack thee, may yet pass for a wise man. For what says Quinapalus -- "Better a witty fool than a foolish wit."
~ William Shakespeare, Twelfth Night. Act V, scene i

Your wit's too hot, it speeds too fast, 'twill tire.
~ William Shakespeare, Love's Labour's Lost. Act II, scene i

To make others wit appear more than ones own, a good rule in conversation: a necessary one, to let others take notice of your wit, and never do it yourself.
~ Sir William Temple, 1st Baronet, in The Works of Sir William Temple, Bart., Vol. I (1720). Miscellanea, Part III. Heads, Designed for an Essay on Conversation

The pleasure arising from wit is that of surprise accompanied by admiration.
~ William Williams, Composition and Rhetoric by Practice, With Exercises Adapted for Use in High Schools and Colleges (1891 edition). The Qualities of Style

[M]ethinks 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, The Country Wife (1673). Act I, scene i

[W]it ... is generally false reasoning.
~ William Wycherley, Letter to Pope (February 1708).

Who stole your wits away
And where are they gone?
~ William Butler Yeats, The Hour-Glass (1912 version).