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

We grant, altho’ he had much wit,
H’ was very shy of using it,
As being loath to wear it out,
And therefore bore it not about,
Unless on holidays or so,
As men their best apparel do.

Butler.—Hudibras, Part I. Canto I. Line 45.

Some, to whom Heaven in wit has been profuse,
Want as much more, to turn it to its use.

Pope.—On Criticism, Line 80.

True wit is nature to advantage dress’d,
What oft was thought, but ne’er so well express’d.

Pope.—Line 297.

Wit and judgment often are at strife,
Though meant each other’s aid, like man and wife.

Pope.—Line 82.

I am a fool, I know it: And yet, Heav’n help me, I’m poor enough to be a wit.

Congreve.—Love for Love, Act I. Scene 1.

WIT.—We six now were all at supper, all in good-humour. Champaign was the word, and wit flew about the room like a pack of losing cards.

Colley Cibber.—Love Makes a Man, Act I.

Wit is the most rascally, contemptible, beggarly thing on the face of the earth.

Murphy.—The Apprentice, Act I.

Well-witted.

Sir Thomas More.—A happy phrase (says Sir James Mackintosh) lost to the language except on familiar occasions, or by a master in the art of combining words. See his Life of More, 437.

WITCHING.—It draws near to witching time of night.

Blair.—The Grave, Line 55.

’Tis now the very witching time of night;
When churchyards yawn, and hell itself breathes out
Contagion to this world.

Shakespeare.—Hamlet, Act III. Scene 2. (Hamlet alone.)

WITHERED.—And fade away suddenly like the grass.
In the morning it is green and groweth up;
But in the evening it is cut down, dried up, and withered.

Psalm XC. Verses 5, 6.

For a short season have I been like a summer plant; suddenly have I sprung up, suddenly have I withered.

Riley’s Plautus.—The Pseudolus, Act I. Scene 1, Page 258.

WITHOUT.—Without our hopes, without our fears,
Without the home that plighted love endears,
Without the smile from partial beauty won,
Oh! what were man?—a world without a sun.

Campbell.—Pleasures of Hope, Part II. Line 24.