"There's a hell of a distance between wise-cracking and wit. Wit has truth in it; wise-cracking is simply calisthenics with words."

Dorothy Parker Literature See all quotes by Dorothy Parker →

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More by Dorothy Parker

“Brevity is the soul of lingerie.”

“I thought that was going to be a good song, too, and then they went and rhymed “time” and “Rhine,” and spoiled everything.”

“The ones I like ... are "cheque" and "enclosed.”

“So seeing that there is nothing further to say, I shall go right on talking about The Circle, thus proving that I am a born reviewer of plays. p. 256”

“One more drink and I'd have been under the host.”

“This use of soldiers to make a play popular seems too much like taking an unfair advantage of the uniform—hitting below the Sam Browne belt, as it were. p. 93”

Resonant Thoughts

"It is difficult to say who it is who first recognized the advantage of always equating to zero in the study of the general equation. It may very likely have been Napier, for he wrote his De Arte Logis…"

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#wisdom

"What people think about you is not supposed to matter much, so long as you yourself know where the truth lies; but I have found out, as have others who move in and out of newspaper headlines, that on …"

— Richard E. Byrd

Military1888–1957

#knowledge

"I must say a few words here concerning the solution of the Polish problem.... Groeber has posed the question: Do I not overestimate the value of the military guarantees? Are not political guarantees i…"

— Gustav Stresemann

Politics1878–1929

#friendship

"The Roman god, Lucifer, was the bearer of light, the spirit of the air, the personification of enlightenment. It has been said "the truth will make men free". The truth alone has never set anyone free…"

— Anton LaVey

Literature1930–1997

#freedom