Browsing Topic Best Jest Quotes

The truth I do not dare to know I muffle with a jest.

It is good to jest, but not to make a trade of jesting.

The squirrel that you kill in jest, dies in earnest.

Twas the saying of an ancient sage that humour was the only test of gravity, and gravity of humour. For a subject which would not bear raillery was suspicious; and a jest which would not bear a serious examination was certainly false wit.

Divinity is not playful. The universe was not made in jest but in solemn incomprehensibl e earnest. By a power that is unfathomably secret, and holy, and fleet. There is nothing to be done about it, but ignore it, or see.

There’s many a true word spoken in jest; scientists are abominably solemn; therefore scientists miss many a true word.

Life is a jest of the Gods and there is no justice. You must learn to laugh… or else you’ll weep yourself to death.

The ways of fate are indeed hard to understand. If there is not some compensation hereafter, then the world is a cruel jest.

Chaos of thought and passion, all confused; Still by himself abused or disabused; Created half to rise, and half to fall; Great lord of all things, yet a prey to all; Sole judge of truth, in endless error hurled,- The glory, jest, and riddle of the world.

The boys throw rocks at the frogs in jest. But the frogs die in earnest.

I know what happiness and what despair are, and I never make a jest of such feelings. Take it, then, but in exchange —

Know, O beloved, that man was not created in jest or at random, but marvelously made and for some great end. Although he is not form everlasting, yet he lives for ever; and though his body is mean and earthly, yet his spirit is lofty and divine

The one from among the Muslims who recites the Qur’an but in the end finds his way to hell, is considerd to be among those that have taken the word of Allah in jest.

Many get the repute of being witty but thereby lose the credit of being sensible. Jest has its little hour, seriousness should have all the rest.

It is depressing to hear the unfortunate or dying man jest.

Humor is the only test of gravity, and gravity of humor; for a subject which will not bear raillery is suspicious, and a jest which will not bear serious examination is false wit.

An atheist is but a mad, ridiculous derider of piety, but a hypocrite makes a sober jest of God and religion; he finds it easier to be upon his knees than to rise to a good action.

I don’t believe that there is a human creature in his senses, arrived to maturity, that at some time or other has not been carried away by this passion (sc. envy) in good earnest; yet I never met with any one who dared own he was guilty of it but in jest.

The universe was not made in jest but in solemn incomprehensible earnest.

Jest with your equals.

May my last breath be drawn through a pipe, and exhaled in a jest.

Sole judge of Truth, in endless Error hurled: / The glory, jest, and riddle of the world!

Many true words are spoken in jest.

Probably they had good reason for omitting it. A profane mind might make a jest of an apostle half seas over, and ridicule an apostolic gate-keeper who couldn’t keep his head above water.

Here’s a proposal, offered only partly in jest: no resident of the United States, whether born here or abroad, should get to be a citizen until age 18, at which time each such resident has to take a test.

you can’t fit the same religion to every man any mo’ than you can the same pair of breeches. The big man takes the big breeches an’ the little man takes the small ones, an’ it’s jest the same with religion. It may be cut after one pattern, but it’s might apt to get its shape from the wearer inside. Why, thar ain’t any text so peaceable that it ain’t drawn blood from somebody.

We never know we go when we are going- We jest and shut the Door- Fate-following-behind us bolts it- And we accost no more-.

Fate does not jest and events are not a matter of chance. There is no existence out of nothing.

I always jest to people, the Oval Office is the kind of place where people stand outside, they’re getting ready to come in and tell me what for, and they walk in and get overwhelmed in the atmosphere, and they say, man, you’re looking pretty.

Woman: the peg on which the wit hangs his jest, the preacher his text, the cynic his grouch and the sinner his justification.

Better to wait and yearn, and still to wait, And die at last with unappeased desire, Than live to be the jest of such a fate, For that is my conception of hell-fire.

You know, I don’t want to be offensive. But ‘Infinite Jest’ [regarded by many as Wallace’s masterpiece] is just awful. It seems ridiculous to have to say it. He can’t think, he can’t write. There’s no discernible talent.

Where there is happiness, there is found pleasure in nonsense. The transformation of experience into its opposite, of the suitable into the unsuitable, the obligatory into the optional (but in such a manner that this process produces no injury and is only imagined in jest), is a pleasure.

Many a true word is spoken in jest

This world is a vaporous jest at best, Tossed off by the gods in laughter, And a cruel attempt at wit were it, If nothing better came after.