Wits Quotes

“Getting something and having the wits to use it...those are two different things.”
― Rick Riordan, The Battle of the Labyrinth

“When our thoughts are unsettled and our inner world is in a muddle, we may sharpen our wits and try to recognize the invisible edges of our fractured stance. If we seek to figure out, what our life story is all about, we may be able to put the missing pieces in place and identify what is driving us, what we are actually up to and why we are running like mad dogs, sometimes. (“On a doggy day”)”
― Erik Pevernagie

“Great wits are to madness near allied
And thin partitions do their bounds divide.”
― John Dryden, Absalom and Achitophel

“It doesn't really matter if you are left behind the back, but what matters is your capacity to pull and push everyone by your way to get to the front.”
― Michael Bassey Johnson

“To evade insanity and depression, we unconsciously limit the number of people toward whom we are sincerely sympathetic.”
― Mokokoma Mokhonoana

“Only in rare instances and with rare individuals does there seem to be any guiding light from within.”
― Theodore Dreiser , Jennie Gerhardt

“The great drawback of being witty is that you have to keep your eyes fixed on the semi-idiots around you, and absorb their worthless sensations.”
― Stendhal, The Life of Henry Brulard

“When you are in the company of lunatics, behave like a lunatic. When you are in the company of intelligentsias, speak with brilliance...that is how a chameleon behaves, the territory changes it, and it adapts to the changes.”
― Michael Bassey Johnson

“Intelligence is a way of thinking, not a choice of words.”
― Mokokoma Mokhonoana, N for Nigger: Aphorisms for Grown Children and Childish Grown-ups

“What are wits for unless a man uses them?”
― Ellis Peters, The Heretic's Apprentice

“His wits were coming back to him, however slowly. That was good. His wits were all he had.”
― George R.R. Martin, A Clash of Kings

“Why, of course, if the reader were smart enough, he could figure the whole thing through after just the first few pages! But in his heart Arthur knew that his readers didn't really want to win. They wanted to test their wits against the author at full pitch, and they wanted to lose. To be dazzled.”
― Graham Moore, The Sherlockian

“Your mental problem becomes a solution when it can be used to solve problems.”
― Michael Bassey Johnson

“A true leader leads for the sake of love and his knowledge of the path, a bad leader redirects his followers to the path of destruction.”
― Michael Bassey Johnson

“The punishing of wits enhances their authority.”
― Francis Bacon

“When my wits fail me, I resort to self-deception.”
― Dean Koontz, Brother Odd

“I wish the enemy would hesitate to shoot when they see me, but you can't expect humanitarianism on the battlefield.”
― Carlo Zen, 幼女戦記 (1) Deus lo vult

“Great wits jump”
― Laurence Sterne, The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman

“Janala is a fool, just bright enough to be proud of the wits she has, but stupid enough to be unaware of how outmatched they are.”
― Brandon Sanderson, Oathbringer

“Those who hasten to be wise (...) have some times lost their own Wits.”
― Peter Ackroyd, Hawksmoor

“His wits have gone dark as his eyes”
― George R.R. Martin, A Storm of Swords

“It was said of him, that Lydgate could do anything he liked, but he had certainly not yet liked to do anything remarkable. He was a vigorous animal with a ready understanding, but no spark had yet kindled in him an intellectual passion; knowledge seemed to him a very superficial affair, easily mastered: judging from the conversation of his elders, he had apparently got already more than was necessary for mature life.”
― George Eliot, Middlemarch

“You're hardly more than skin and bones,' she said, her fingers luxurious against my scalp.

'Winter does that to poor mortals,' I said, fighting to keep the sharpness from my tone.

She huffed a laugh. 'If you're wise, you'll keep your mouth shut and your ears open. It'll do you more good here than a loose tongue. And keep your wits about you- even your senses will try to betray you here.”
― Sarah J. Maas, A Court of Thorns and Roses

“Moundshroud led the Team down on their brooms over the farms where witches dropped frogs in cauldrons and stomped toads and snuffed mummy dust and cavorted in cackles.

"But, stop and think. What does the word 'witch' truly mean?"

"Why--" said Tom, and was stymied.

"Wits," said Moundshroud. "Intelligence. That's all it means. Knowledge. So any man, or woman, with half a brain and with inclinations toward learning had his wits about him, eh? And so, anyone too smart, who didn't watch out, was called--"

"A witch!" said everyone.”
― Ray Bradbury, The Halloween Tree

“Nuk shquhej për zgjuarsi, por në mësime ishte i pari.”
― Fyodor Dostoyevsky

“When I battle wits with Jarod Kintz I always feel like I need to take my brain out to give him a transplant. Bad part is we don't have any.”
― Will Advise, Nothing is here...

“Please,' I breathed. 'My father-'

'Your father?' He lifted his stare to the gates behind me, and his growl rumbled through me as he bared his teeth. 'Why don't you look again?' He released me.

I staggered back a step, whirling, sucking in a breath to tell my father to run, but-

But he wasn't there. Only a pale bow and a quiver of pale arrows remained, propped up against the gates. Mountain ash. They hadn't been there moments before, hadn't-

They rippled, as if they were nothing but water- and then the bow and quiver became a large pack, laden with supplies. Another ripple- and there were my sisters, huddled together, weeping.

My knees buckled. 'What is...' I didn't finish the question. My father now stood there, still hunched and beckoning. A flawless rendering.

'Weren't you warned to keep your wits about you?' Tamlin snapped. 'That your human senses would betray you?' He stepped beyond me and let out a snarl so vicious that whatever the thing was by the gates shimmered with light and darted out as fast as lightning streaking through the dark.

'Fool,' he said to me, turning. 'If you're ever going to run away, at least do it in the daytime.' He stared me down, and the fangs slowly retracted. The claws remained. 'There are worse things than the Bogge prowling these woods at night. That thing at the gates isn't one of them- and it would have taken a good while devouring you.”
― Sarah J. Maas, A Court of Thorns and Roses

“The best scenario for a genius to be born is a suburban area, not choc-a-bloc a place, for wits prefer quietness.”
― Lana M. Rochel, Looking For Your Tribe: Intellectual Poems

“After all, there's nothing more dangerous than love.' She looked up, her breath catching. 'You might find yourself losing your wits entirely. Of worse, your heart.”
― M.A. Kuzniar, Upon a Frosted Star

“After all, there's nothing more dangerous than love.' She looked up, her breath catching. 'You might find yourself losing your wits entirely. Or worse, your heart.”
― M.A. Kuzniar, Upon a Frosted Star