Wit's End Quotes

“Jive undertakes to remedy that situation with language that makes up for the dullness of mere existence.”
― James Geary, Wit's End: What Wit Is, How It Works, and Why We Need It

“Yet, when examined through the lens of metaphor, we clearly see that Mr. Lec tightly packs multiple objects into the single word “avalanche,” including the image of snowflakes as people and the inexorable force of opinion to which a lone voice may be subject when the desire for consensus and pressure for conformity quash potential dissent while simultaneously absolving individual members within a group of culpability for collectively made decisions. Despite its manifest complexity, this story effortlessly unfolds not so much on the page itself, but in the mind of the reader.”
― James Geary, Wit's End: What Wit Is, How It Works, and Why We Need It

“Witzelsucht, in which patients compulsively share dreadful puns, facetious jokes, and socially inappropriate wisecracks.”
― James Geary, Wit's End: What Wit Is, How It Works, and Why We Need It

“The malice of a good thing is the barb that makes it stick.”
― James Geary, Wit's End: What Wit Is, How It Works, and Why We Need It

“Diderot was so flustered by the affront that he only thought of a clever retort as he was walking down the stairs on his way out. The encounter led him to devise the term “l’esprit d’escalier,” “the wit of the staircase,” for the experience of thinking of a witty comeback only after it is too late to deliver it.”
― James Geary, Wit's End: What Wit Is, How It Works, and Why We Need It