“You know, sarcasm is the lowest form of wit.'
'And yet it is still extremely funny.”
Cecelia Ahern (1981) Irish novelist
Source: The Time of My Life
“The wit's desire is to be funny; the ironist is only funny as a secondary achievement.”
— Robertson Davies, book The Cunning Man
Part 2, section 6.
The Cunning Man (1994)
Context: The ironist is not bitter, he does not seek to undercut everything that seems worthy or serious, he scorns the cheap scoring-off of the wisecracker. He stands, so to speak, somewhat at one side, observes and speaks with a moderation which is occasionally embellished with a flash of controlled exaggeration. He speaks from a certain depth, and thus he is not of the same nature as the wit, who so often speaks from the tongue and no deeper. The wit's desire is to be funny; the ironist is only funny as a secondary achievement.
Help us to complete the source, original and additional information
Do you have more details about the quote "The wit's desire is to be funny; the ironist is only funny as a secondary achievement." by Robertson Davies?
Robertson Davies282
Canadian journalist, playwright, professor, critic, and nov… 1913–1995Related quotes
Napoleon I of France (1769–1821) French general, First Consul and later Emperor of the French
Napoleon : In His Own Words (1916)
“A creative man is motivated by the desire to achieve, not by the desire to beat others.”
Ayn Rand (1905–1982) Russian-American novelist and philosopher
“To desire is to obtain; to aspire is to, achieve.”
James Allen book As a Man Thinketh
As A Man Thinketh (1902), Visions and Ideals
Source: As a Man Thinketh
Context: To desire is to obtain; to aspire is to, achieve. Shall man's basest desires receive the fullest measure of gratification, and his purest aspirations starve for lack of sustenance? Such is not the Law: such a condition of things can never obtain: "ask and receive."
Dream lofty dreams, and as you dream, so shall you become. Your Vision is the promise of what you shall one day be; your Ideal is the prophecy of what you shall at last unveil.
Celia Green (1935) British philosopher
Advice to Clever Children (1981)
Max Pechstein (1881–1955) German artist
As quoted in German Expressionist Painting, Peter Selz, University of California Press, 1974, p. 313
Pechstein and others initiated in Nov. 1918 in Berlin the Novembergruppe, a socialist artist-group, competing then with Die Brücke
Brian Tracy (1944) American motivational speaker and writer
Winston S. Churchill (1874–1965) Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
Speech at Zurich University (September 19, 1946) ( partial text http://www.churchill-society-london.org.uk/astonish.html) ( http://www.peshawar.ch/varia/winston.htm). <br class="br">Post-war years (1945–1955)
