Jest Quotes

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Jest Quotes & Sayings

These jest quotes and jest sayings are from our famous and inspiring collection.
Woman! The peg on which the wit hangs his jest, the preacher his text, the cynic his grouch, and the sinner his justification! - Helen Rowland


If anything is spoken in jest, it is not fair to turn it to earnest. [La., Si quid dictum est per jocum, Non aequum est id te serio praevortier] - Plautus [Titus Maccius Plautus]


O jest unseen, inscrutable, invisible, As a nose on a man's face, or a weathercock on a steeple. - William Shakespeare


The squirrel that you kill in jest, dies in earnest. - Henry David Thoreau


It happened that a fire broke out backstage in a theatre. The clown came out to inform the public. They thought it was a jest and applauded. He repeated his warning. They shouted even louder. So I think the world will come to an end amid the general applause from all the wits who believe that it is a joke. - Soren Aabye Kierkegaard


The truth I do not dare to know, I muffle with a jest. - Emily Dickinson


Alas, poor Yorick! I knew him, Horatio: a fellow of infinite jest, of most excellent fancy. He hath borne me on his back a thousand times; and now, how abhorred in my imagination it is! my gorge rises at it. Here hung those lips that I have kissed I know not how oft. Where be your gibes now; your gambols, your songs? your flashes of merriment, that were wont to set the table on a roar? Not one now, to mock your own grinning? Quite chap-fallen? Now get you to my lady's chamber, and tell her, let her paint an inch thick, to this favour she must come. - William Shakespeare


Never injure a friend, even in jest. - Cicero [Marcus Tullius Cicero]


Jane borrow'd maxims from a doubting school, And took for truth the test of ridicule; Lucy saw no such virtue in a jest, Truth was with her of ridicule the test. - George Crabbe