Top 163 Jest Quotes & Sayings

Of all the grief's that harass the distressed; sure the most bitter is a scornful jest.

If anything is spoken in jest, it is not fair to turn it to earnest.

Never injure a friend, even in jest.

Love taught me that your honour did but jest.

Many a true word is spoken in jest

"The birds can fly, an' why can't I? Must we give in," says he, with a grin, "'T the blackbird an' phoebe are smarter 'n we be? Jest fold our hands, an' see the swaller An' blackbird an' catbird beat us holler? ... Jest show me that! er prove 't that bat Hez got more brains thans's in my hat, An' I'll back down, an' not till then!"

Life is a jest; and all things show it. I thought so once; but now I know it.

A friend must not be injured, even in jest.

Heaven to me's a fair blue stretch of sky, Earth's jest a dusty road.

A bitter jest, when it comes too near the truth, leaves a sharp sting behind it.

Those that will combat use and custom by the strict rules of grammar do but jest

A jest's prosperity lies in the ear

Imyself haveheard averygood jest, and havescornedto seem to have so sillya wit as to understand it.

If all else fails, the character of a man can be recognized by nothing so surely as by a jest which he takes badly.

Those who can least bear a jest upon themselves, will be most diverted with one passed on others.

Many true words are spoken in jest.

often when I thought I joked, I told the truth, afraid to speak it except in jest.

O jest unseen, inscrutable, invisible, As a nose on a man's face, or a weathercock on a steeple.

Life is too transcendentally humorous for a man not to take it seriously. Compared with it, Death is but a shallow jest.

He who does not like you will defame you in jest.

I often say in jest, 'We haven't changed the world but hopefully we've become an accessory.'

Every thing in this world, said my father, is big with jest,--and has wit in it, and instruction too,--if we can but find it out.

Many a truth is told in jest.

Jest not with the eye or with Religion.

Judge of a jest when you have done laughing.

I am usually a fun-loving person, and I say most of the things in a jest. Sometimes I get in trouble, but over a period of time, I think people now realise that most of the things I say are in jest.

May my last breath be drawn through a pipe, and exhaled in a jest.

There's many a true word spoken in jest.

Life seems a jest of Fate's contriving.

Life is a jest of the Gods and there is no justice. You must learn to laugh… or else you'll weep yourself to death.

It is good to jest, but not to make a trade of jesting.

The universe was not made in jest but in solemn incomprehensible earnest.

Listen closely as those around you speak; great truths are revealed in jest.

Some had rather lose their friend then their Jest.

It is depressing to hear the unfortunate or dying man jest.

Remember Henry Adam's jest that the succession of presidents from Washington to Grant disproved the theory of evolution?

... she, that will with kittens jest, Should bear a kitten's joke.

Life was never anything but a perpetual see-saw between gravity and jest.

A jest often decides matters of importance more effectively and happily than seriousness.

Man's life is but a jest, A dream, a shadow, bubble, air, a vapor at the best.

As my mother once said: The boys throw stones at the frog in jest. But the frogs die in earnest.

A person gets from a symbol the meaning he puts into it, and what is one man's comfort and inspiration is another's jest and scorn.

The only reason I was allowed to have a career for a quarter century as an insult comic is because it's all in jest and all for fun.

In jest, there is truth.

Jest with your equals.

A lot of truth is said in jest.

The fund of sensible discourse is limited; that of jest and badinerie is infinite.

Merriment is always the effect of a sudden impression. The jest which is expected is already destroyed.

To smile at the jest which plants a thorn in another's breast is to become a principal in the mischief.

The squirrel that you kill in jest, dies in earnest.

War is the statesman's game, the priest's delight, the lawyer's jest, the hired assassin's trade.

Fate does not jest and events are not a matter of chance. There is no existence out of nothing.

Many a true word hath been spoken in jest.

The jest loses its point when he who makes it is the first to laugh.

I know what happiness and what despair are, and I never make a jest of such feelings. Take it, then, but in exchange —

The Irish always jest even though they jest with tears.

The universe does not jest with us, but is in earnest.

Great men may jest with saints; 'tis wit in them; But, in the less foul profanation.

The truth I do not dare to know I muffle with a jest.

Sole judge of Truth, in endless Error hurled: / The glory, jest, and riddle of the world!