True Wit is Nature to advantage dress'd What oft was thought, but ne'er so well express'd; Something whose truth convinced at sight we find, That gives us back the image of our mind. As shades more sweetly recommend the light, So modest plainness sets off sprightly wit.

Alexander Pope
About This Quote

Wit is being able to do something that other people are not able to do. It is being able to think of things to say that no one else can think of. It is being able to challenge your own ideas and conclusions. There are many people who would agree with this quote, but there are others who would ask, “What did he have in mind when he said wit?”

Source: An Essay On Criticism

Some Similar Quotes
  1. He drew a circle that shut me out- Heretic , rebel, a thing to flout. But love and I had the wit to win: We drew a circle and took him In ! From the poem " Outwitted - Edwin Markham
  2. I refuse to answer that question on the grounds that I don't know the answer - Douglas Adams
  3. I am not absentminded. It is the presence of mind that makes me unaware of everything else. - G.k. Chesterton
  4. Heterosexuality is not normal, it's just common. - Dorothy Parker
  5. The covers of this book are too far apart. - Ambrose Bierce
More Quotes By Alexander Pope
  1. If I am right, Thy grace impart Still in the right to stay; If I am wrong, O, teach my heart To find that better way!
  2. Nature and Nature's laws lay hid in night: God said, Let Newton be! and all was light.
  3. A man should never be ashamed to own that he has been in the wrong, which is but saying in other words that he is wiser today than he was yesterday.
  4. Blessed is he who expects nothing, for he shall never be disappointed.
  5. Hope springs eternal in the human breast; Man never Is, but always To be blest. The soul, uneasy, and confin'd from home, Rests and expatiates in a life to come.
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