“Laugh not too much; the witty man laughs least: for wit is news only to ignorance.”

— George Herbert, The Temple (1633), "The Church-Porch", stanza 39

About George Herbert

1593 – 1633

Welsh-born English poet and Anglican priest, compiler of the proverb collection 'Jacula Prudentum' (1651).

“Before you make a friend, eat a bushel of salt with him.”

“My house, my house, though thou art small, thou art to me the Escurial.”

“Man is one world, and hath Another to attend him.”

“Experience is simply the name we give our mistakes.”

“The older I grow, the more I distrust the familiar doctrine that age brings wisdom.”

“The highest forms of understanding we can achieve are laughter and human compassion.”

“My way of joking is to tell the truth. It's the funniest joke in the world.”

“Silence is as full of potential wisdom and wit as the unshown marble of great sculpture.”

“Wit has truth in it; wise-cracking is simply calisthenics with words.”