Emotions and Feelings

There’s a hell of a distance between wisecracking and wit. Wit has truth in it; wisecracking is simply calisthenics with words.

As hand-to-hand combat has gradually disappeared . . . Americans have turned to the automobile to satisfy their love of direct aggression.

Humor does not include sarcasm, invalid irony, sardonicism, or any other form of cruelty. When these things are raised to a high point they can become wit.

A car can massage organs which no masseur can reach. It is the one remedy for the disorders of the great sympathetic nervous system.

It is with wits as with razors, which are never so apt to cut those they are employed on as when they have lost their edge.

The greatest fault of a penetrating wit is to go beyond the mark.

There is no possibility of being witty without a little ill-nature; the malice in a good thing is the barb that makes it stick.

Wit is like caviar; it should be savored in small elegant proportions, and not spread about like marmalade.

Wit is the salt of conversation, not the food.

Always leave something to wish for; otherwise you will be miserable from your very happiness.

Always leave something to wish for; otherwise you will be miserable from your very happiness.

It seems to me that the most universal revolutionary wish now or ever is a wish for heaven, a wish by a human being to be honored by angels for something other than beauty or usefulness.

while we are thoroughly alive. There are certain things we feel to be beautiful and good, and we must hunger after them.

If man could have half his wishes, he would double his troubles.

If man could have half his wishes, he would double his troubles.

Wisdom is ofttimes nearer when we stoop Than when we soar.

It is characteristic of wisdom not to do desperate things.

The growth of wisdom may be gauged exactly by the diminution of ill temper.

All human wisdom is summed up in these two words— Wait and Hope .

All human wisdom is summed up in these two words— Wait and Hope .

It isn’t what a man has that constitutes wealth. No—it is to be satisfied with what one has; that is wealth.

A rock pile ceases to be a rock pile the moment a single man contemplates it, bearing within him the image of a cathedral.

One advantage resulting from virtuous actions is that they elevate the mind and dispose it to attempt others more virtuous still.

Virtue would not go nearly so far if vanity did not keep her company.