Jest Quotes & Sayings
These jest quotes and jest sayings are from our famous and inspiring collection.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