C.N. Douglas, comp. Forty Thousand Quotations: Prose and Poetical. 1917.
Repartee
Repartee is the soul of conversation.
Repartee is altogether a natural endowment, and is the lightning of the mind.
The impromptu reply is precisely the touchstone of the man of wit.
A talent for repartee is one that increases with practice.
Those repartees are best which turn your adversary’s weapons against himself.
The artful injury, whose venomed dart scarce wounds the hearing, while it stabs the heart.
Repartee is perfect, when it effects its purpose with a double edge. Repartee is the highest order of wit, as it bespeaks the coolest yet quickest exercise of genius at a moment when the passions are roused.
The cynic who twitted Aristippus by observing that the philosopher who could dine on herbs might despise the company of a king, was well replied to by Aristippus, when he remarked that the philosopher who could enjoy the company or a king might also despise a dinner of herbs.