In conversation, humor is worth more than wit and easiness more than knowledge. — George Herbert
A smart person knows what to say, a wise person knows whether or not to say it. — Unknown
A clever person solves a problem. A wise person avoids it. — Albert Einstein
Use your wit as a shield, not as a dagger. — American Proverbs
A sense of humor is just common sense dancing. — William James
A short saying often contains much wisdom. — Sophocles
The clever cat eats cheese and breathes down rat holes with baited breath. — W. C. Fields
Half of seeming clever is keeping your mouth shut at the right times. — Patrick Rothfuss
The secret to humor is surprise. — Aristotle
Brevity is a great charm of eloquence. — Marcus Tullius Cicero
Quick Wit Image Quotes
To succeed, jump as quickly at opportunities as you do at conclusions.
Wit And Wisdom Quotes
There is no such thing as an acceptable level of unemployment, because hunger is not acceptable, poverty is not acceptable, poor health is not acceptable, and a ruined life is not acceptable. — Hubert H. Humphrey
A warrior considers himself already dead, so there is nothing to lose. The worst has already happened to him, therefore he's clear and calm; judging him by his acts or by his words, one would never suspect that he has witnessed everything. — Carlos Castaneda
Anonymity is an abused privilege, abused most by people who mistake vitriol for wisdom and cynicism for wit. — Danny Wallace
It takes time to create excellence. If it could be done quickly, more people would do it.
When we say, 'One nation under God, with liberty and justice for all', we are talking about all people. We either ought to believe it or quit saying it . — Hubert H. Humphrey
For the May Day is the great day,
Sung along the old straight track.
And those who ancient lines did ley
Will heed this song that calls them back...
Pass the cup, and pass the Lady,
And pass the plate to all who hunger,
Pass the wit of ancient wisdom,
Pass the cup of crimson wonder. — Jethro Tull
Why buy good luggage? You only use it when you travel. — Yogi Berra
Be curious! A good question can take you a lot farther than a quick answer.
I have read my books by many lights, hoarding their beauty, their wit or wisdom against the dark days when I would have no book, nor a place to read. I have known hunger of the belly kind many times over, but I have known a worse hunger: the need to know and to learn. — Louis L'Amour
The old grooves must be erased in your brain, without forming new ones. You must realize yourself as the immovable, behind and beyond the movable, the silent witness of all that happens. — Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
We cannot use a double standard for measuring our own and other people's policies. Our demands for democratic practices in other lands will be no more effective than the guarantees of those practiced in our own country. — Hubert H. Humphrey
There is a great deal of difference between living and surviving. You can survive in debauchery, even in sickness and despair. But you live with a spirit of vitality and a spirit of participation, of being wanted, and having something to contribute. — Hubert H. Humphrey
Quick Thinking Quotes
There are some of us who think to ourselves, 'If I had only been there! How quick I would have been to help the Baby. I would have washed His linen. How happy I would have been to go with the shepherds to see the Lord lying in the manger!' Why don't we do it now? We have Christ in our neighbor. — Martin Luther
If you think and act like a typical manager around creative people—with rules, policies, data on customer preferences, and so forth—you will quickly kill their talent. — Bernard Arnault
What destroys a man more quickly than to work, think and feel without inner necessity, without any deep personal desire, without pleasure - as a mere automaton of duty? — Friedrich Nietzsche
Intelligence is quickness in seeing things as they are.
I've seen a look in dogs' eyes, a quickly vanishing look of amazed contempt, and I am convinced that basically dogs think humans are nuts. — John Steinbeck
As a matter of fact, I am an uncle. I have nine nephews and nieces. I'm not sure if they think I'm all that quick with a quip. But I'm quick with a spank. — Dean Norris
We can’t get in the cage thinking that we’ll win quickly, that we’ll get the knockout. — Amanda Nunes
A guy like Malcolm who makes that type of quick, instinctive plays, that's one of his strong suits. I don't think it surprised any of us players because that's what his skill set is. — Tom Brady
Set your mind on a definite goal and observe how quickly the world stands aside to let you pass. — Napoleon Hill
I often think about how, if we were all placed in an apocalyptic situation, you'd realize quickly how stupid, petty things just don't matter anymore. Who you love is who you love, and it doesn't matter. Survival is your primary focus. — Alycia Debnam Carey
I can think of no faster way to unite the American people behind George W. Bush than a terrorist attack on an American target overseas. And I believe George W. Bush will quickly unite the American people through his foreign policy. — Henry A. Kissinger
Wit And Humor Quotes
My dad is a very quick-witted, sarcastic, dry, humorous guy, whereas my mom's very silly, and that side of the family is very musical. — Tim Heidecker
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. — Aristotle
The first ingredient in conversation is truth, the next good sense, the third good humor, and the fourth wit. — Sir William Temple
I believe disagreement is an art. It requires care. It requires skills, it requires compassion and respect. When there’s underlying respect you get to play, there’s humor, there’s wit. Ultimately you arrive at something profound as a result. — Lex Fridman
My coping mechanism with my dyslexia is to use wit and humor. — Max Brooks
Humor does not include sarcasm, invalid irony, sardonicism, innuendo, or any other form of cruelty. When these things are raised to a high point they can become wit, but unlike the French and the English, we have not been much good at wit since the days of Benjamin Franklin. — James Thurber
Universities incline wits to sophistry and affectation. — Jacques Barzun
I asked God for a bike, but I know God doesn't work that way. So I stole a bike and asked for forgiveness. — Emo Philips
I thought about how mothers feed their babies with tiny little spoons and forks so I wondered, what do Chinese mothers use? Toothpicks? — George Carlin
In America, anyone can become president. That's the problem. — George Carlin
If the black box flight recorder is never damaged during a plane crash, why isn’t the whole airplane made out of that stuff? — George Carlin
God created sex. Priests created marriage. — Voltaire
Most writers are not quick-witted when they talk. Novelists, in particular, drag themselves around in society like gut-shot bears. — Kurt Vonnegut
The thing about tourism is just that it's incredibly powerful. It's like a gun and it's incredibly easy to be irresponsible with it. And the speed of the impact that tourism can have on a place can be quite breathtaking. It doesn't take years, it takes months. That's how quickly it works. And it can be quite a bleak thing to witness. — Alex Garland
That which we call wit consists much in quickness and tricks, and is so full of lightness that it seldom goes with judgment and solidity; but when they do meet, it is commonly in an honest man. — King James I
No one could have called Mr. Standen quick-witted, but the possession of three sisters had considerably sharpened his instinct of self-preservation. — Georgette Heyer
I like men with quick wit, good conversation and a great sense of humour. I love banter. I want a man to like me for me - I want him to be authentic. — Emma Watson
Those who have a natural talent for calculation are generally quick-witted at every other kind of knowledge; and even the dull, if they have had an arithmetical training, although they may derive no other advantage from it, always become much quicker than they would have been. — Plato
It is no great advantage to possess a quick wit, if it is not correct; the perfection is not speed but uniformity. — Luc De Clapiers
All that is worth seeing in good boxing can best be witnessed in a contest with soft gloves. Every value is called out: quickness, force, precision, foresight, readiness, pluck, and endurance. With these, the rowdy and 'rough' are not satisfied. — John Boyle O'Reilly
What quick wit is found in sudden straits! — Martial
I have no great quickness of apprehension or wit which is so remarkable in some clever men, for instance Huxley — Charles Darwin
Comedy mocks the vanity of visions of rational control. The person who can joke amidst a confrontation with evil, like the quick-witted Spider-Man, must be reconciled to the permanent imperfections of a corrupted world populated by fallen creatures. — Peter Leithart
I've had years of teasing about my red hair, but I definitely think it toughened me up. If you're ginger, you end up pretty quick-witted. — Ed Sheeran
most of our social and educational institutions are designed to weed out or make over people ... until we produce a world where everyone is a smart, quick-witted, aggressive person living on the surface of the mind without ever looking into the depths. — Helen McCloy
The food is excellent. The beer is cold. The sun nearly always shines. There is coffee on every corner. Life doesn’t get much better than this. — Bill Bryson
America -- rather, the United States -- seems to me to be the Jew among the nations. It is resourceful, adaptable, maligned, envied, feared, imposed upon. It is warm-hearted, over-friendly; quick-witted, lavish, colorful; given to extravagant speech and gestures; its people are travelers and wanderers by nature, moving, shifting, restless; swarming in Fords, in ocean liners; craving entertainment; volatile. The chuckle among the nations of the world. — Edna Ferber
By and large the literature of a democracy will never exhibit the order, regularity, skill, and art characteristic of aristocratic literature; formal qualities will be neglected or actually despised. The style will often be strange, incorrect, overburdened, and loose, and almost always strong and bold. Writers will be more anxious to work quickly than to perfect details. Short works will be commoner than long books, wit than erudition, imagination than depth. There will be a rude and untutored vigor of thought with great variety and singular fecundity. Authors will strive to astonish more than to please, and to stir passions rather than to charm taste. — Alexis de Tocqueville
You have to have your wits about you and think quickly on your feet. — Michael East
I think a lot of people underestimate the physical demands required to be a top model. It's not just what you're doing on set, it's the strength you have to have to survive in a cutthroat industry. It's the quick wit and the quick thinking on your feet in certain situations. — Rosie Huntington-Whiteley
Not a time with him passed that I didn't say, "You should've been a comedian." [Vincent Price] was hilarious. He was just such a quick, funny wit. I don't think most people would think that about him, and it was really surprising to me. But man, the guy had a brilliant wit. — Cassandra Peterson
It requires enormous presence of mind or rather quickness of wit, when opening your eyes to seize hold as it were of everything in the room at exactly the same place where you had let it go on the previous evening. That is why the moment of waking up was the riskiest moment of the day. Once that was well over without deflecting you from your orbit, you could take heart of grace for the rest of the day. — Franz Kafka
Washington society has always demanded less and given more than any society in this country--demanded less of applause, deference,etiquette, and has accepted as current coin quick wit, appreciative tact, and a talent for talking. — M. E. W. Sherwood
I'm lucky enough to have been in the age before the internet and now during the internet. I'm grateful to be a witness to that. It's horse and buggy versus car. To see how quickly things change has given me a renewed sense of optimism. Does that make sense? — Kathleen Hanna
I am shocked and slightly perturbed by his exuberance and quick wit. Knock Knock Channel 4 — Scott Capurro
Be not too slow in the breaking of a sinful custom; a quick, courageous resolution is better than a gradual deliberation; in such a combat he is the bravest soldier that lays about him without fear or wit. Wit pleads, fear disheartens; he that would kill Hydra had better strike off one neck than five heads: fell the tree, and the branches are soon cut off. — Francis Quarles
Abstracts, abridgments, summaries, etc., have the same use with burning-glasses,--to collect the diffused light rays of wit and learning in authors, and make them point with warmth and quickness upon the reader's imagination. — Jonathan Swift
For [the] quick in wit and light in manners be either seldom troubled or very soon weary, in carrying a very heavy purse. — Roger Ascham
A sentence is but a cheveril glove to a good wit; How quickly the wrong side may be turned outward! — William Shakespeare
Writing is eternal, For therein the dead heart liveth, the clay-cold tongue is eloquent, And the quick eye of the reader is cleared by the reed of the scribe. As a fossil in the rock, or a coin in the mortar of a ruin, So the symbolled thoughts tell of a departed soul: The plastic hand hath its witness in a statue, and exactitude of vision in a picture, And so, the mind, that was among us, in its writings is embalmed. — F. Scott Fitzgerald
This wasn't because he liked me, I was sure. It had more to do with him banking on what we of wedding age had all become witnesses to-how during these wedding weekends, single women, feeling a little lonely, maybe, or just feeling a little too far from being the bride, found themselves loosening their own rules, opting to be more flexible, more quickly. — Laura Dave
A trial is still an ordeal by battle. For the broadsword there is the weight of evidence; for the battle-ax the force of logic; for the sharp spear, the blazing gleam of truth; for the rapier, the quick and flashing knife of wit. — Lloyd Paul Stryker
My dad's sense of humor was direct and sometimes surreal - his quick wit is well known amongst our family and friends. He raised me on Spike Jones records and W.C. Fields movies, and his sense of humor fell somewhere in between. — Tony Visconti
Yes, this life is passing swiftly; our days
seem to fade quickly; and
death appears frightening at times.
Nevertheless, our spirit will continue
to live and will one day be united with
our resurrected body to receive immortal glory. I bear solemn witness
that because of the merciful Christ,
we will all live again and forever. — Dieter F. Uchtdorf
In general, the men of lower intelligence won out. Afraid of their own shortcomings and of the intelligence of their opponents, so that they would not lose out in reasoned argument or be taken by surprise by their quick-witted opponents, they boldly moved into action. Their enemies,on the contrary, contemptuous and confident in their ability to anticipate, thought there was no need to take by action what they could win by their brains. — Thucydides
The Triumph of Wit is to make your good Nature subdue your Censure; to be quick in seeing Faults, and slow in exposing them. You are to consider, that the invisible thing called a Good Name, is made up of the Breath of Numbers that speak well of you; so that if by a disobliging Word you silence the meanest, the Gale will be less strong which is to bear up your Esteem. — E. F. L. Wood, 1st Earl of Halifax
Sharp men, like sharp needles, break easy, though they pierce quick. — Henry Ward Beecher
Wit in conversation is only a readiness of thought and a facility of expression, or a quick conception and an easy delivery. — Alexander Pope
So do I wish I was to be king? That is not a question I ask myself. I ask myself, Would I be a good king? Would I be quick witted and generous of spirit and full of that boundless energy? Or would I be clumsy and stupid and dulled by my own prejudices? I try to be a good man, since I am alive at all, and hope that that teaches me what I would need to know if I was ever faced with a higher challenge. — Sharon Shinn
The people are immensely likable— cheerful, extrovert, quick-witted, and unfailingly obliging. Their cities are safe and clean and nearly always built on water. They have a society that is prosperous, well ordered, and instinctively egalitarian. The food is excellent. The beer is cold. The sun nearly always shines. There is coffee on every corner. Life doesn't get much better than this. — Bill Bryson
In Conclusion
Which quotation resonated with you best? Did you enjoy our collection of quick wit quotes? Or may be you have a slogan about quick wit to suggest. Let us know using our contact form.
Citation
Feel free to cite and use any of the quotes in this collection of quick wit quotations. For popular citation styles(APA, Chicago, MLA), please use this citation page.
