Quotes
Quotes about Wit
The most glorious exploits do not always furnish us with the clearest discoveries of virtue or vice in men.
When asked why he parted with his wife, Cæsar replied, "I wished my wife to be not so much as suspected."
Demosthenes overcame and rendered more distinct his inarticulate and stammering pronunciation by speaking with pebbles in his mouth.
It is a true proverb, that if you live with a lame man you will learn to halt.
To sing the same tune, as the saying is, is in everything cloying and offensive; but men are generally pleased with variety.
Eat not thy heart; which forbids to afflict our souls, and waste them with vexatious cares.
An old doting fool, with one foot already in the grave.
Being nimble and light-footed, his father encouraged him to run in the Olympic race. "Yes," said he, "if there were any kings there to run with me."
When Darius offered him ten thousand talents, and to divide Asia equally with him, "I would accept it," said Parmenio, "were I Alexander." "And so truly would I," said Alexander, "if I were Parmenio." But he answered Darius that the earth could not bear two suns, nor Asia two kings.
When he was wounded with an arrow in the ankle, and many ran to him that were wont to call him a god, he said smiling, "That is blood, as you see, and not, as Homer saith, ‘such humour as distils from blessed gods.'"
Alcibiades had a very handsome dog, that cost him seven thousand drachmas; and he cut off his tail, "that," said he, "the Athenians may have this story to tell of me, and may concern themselves no further with me."
Lysander said, "Where the lion's skin will not reach, it must be pieced with the fox's."
Cato requested old men not to add the disgrace of wickedness to old age, which was accompanied with many other evils.
Epaminondas is reported wittily to have said of a good man that died about the time of the battle of Leuctra, "How came he to have so much leisure as to die, when there was so much stirring?"
About Pontus there are some creatures of such an extempore being that the whole term of their life is confined within the space of a day; for they are brought forth in the morning, are in the prime of their existence at noon, grow old at night, and then die.
Agesilaus was very fond of his children; and it is reported that once toying with them he got astride upon a reed as upon a horse, and rode about the room; and being seen by one of his friends, he desired him not to speak of it till he had children of his own.
Lysander, when Dionysius sent him two gowns, and bade him choose which he would carry to his daughter, said, "She can choose best," and so took both away with him.
Spintharus, speaking in commendation of Epaminondas, says he scarce ever met with any man who knew more and spoke less.
Let us not wonder if something happens which never was before, or if something doth not appear among us with which the ancients were acquainted.
There is no debt with so much prejudice put off as that of justice.
Lampis, the sea commander, being asked how he got his wealth, answered, "My greatest estate I gained easily enough, but the smaller slowly and with much labour."
Leo Byzantius said, "What would you do, if you saw my wife, who scarce reaches up to my knees?... Yet," went he on, "as little as we are, when we fall out with each other, the city of Byzantium is not big enough to hold us."
Both Empedocles and Heraclitus held it for a truth that man could not be altogether cleared from injustice in dealing with beasts as he now does.
Yet God hath not only granted these faculties, by which we may bear every event without being depressed or broken by it, but like a good prince and a true father, hath placed their exercise above restraint, compulsion, or hindrance, and wholly without our own control.
O slavish man! will you not bear with your own brother, who has God for his Father, as being a son from the same stock, and of the same high descent? But if you chance to be placed in some superior station, will you presently set yourself up for a tyrant?
