Chapter WISE to WITS of Index by Grocott's Quotations - Alpha

Bacon.—Essay XXXIX. Of Custom.

Two Herveys had a mutual wish.
To please in separate stations;
The one invented “Sauce for Fish,”
The other “Meditations.”
Each has his pungent powers applied
To aid the dead and dying;
This relishes a sole when fried,
That saves a soul from frying.

Anonymous.

I’ve often wish’d that I had clear,
For life, six hundred pounds a-year,
A handsome house to lodge a friend,
A river at my garden’s end,
A terrace walk, and half a rood
Of land set out to plant a wood.

Swift.—Horace, Satire VI. Book II.

What all men wish’d, though few could hope to see,
We are now bless’d with, and obliged by thee.

Waller.—To Mr. Creech.

Wishing, of all employments, is the worst,
Philosophy’s reverse; and health’s decay!

Young.—Night IV. Line 71.

Fate wings with every wish the afflictive dart,
Each gift of nature, and each grace of art.

Johnson.—The Vanity of Human Wishes, Line 15.

WIT.—Pro. Beshrew me, but you have a quick wit.
Speed. And yet cannot overtake your slow purse.

Shakespeare.—Two Gentlemen of Verona, Act I. Scene 1.

I shall ne’er be ’ware of mine own wit, till I break my shins against it.

Shakespeare.—As You Like it, Act II. Scene 4. (Touchstone to Rosalind.)

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

Shakespeare.—King Henry IV. Part II. Act I. Scene 2. (Falstaff.)

Such short-liv’d wits do wither as they grow.

Shakespeare.—Love’s Labour’s Lost, Act II. Scene 1. (The Princess to Maria.)

A perfect judge will read each work of wit
With the same spirit that its author writ.

Pope.—On Criticism, Part II. Line 233.

Beauty that shocks you, parts that none will trust,
Wit that can creep, and pride that licks the dust.

Pope.—Prologue to Sat. Line 332.

In wit a man, simplicity a child.

Pope.—Gay’s Epitaph.

It is meat and drink to me to see a clown: By my troth, we that have good wits have much to answer for.

Shakespeare.—As You Like it, Act V. Scene 1. (Touchstone.)