Robert Christy, comp. Proverbs, Maxims and Phrases of All Ages. 1887.
Jest, Joke
A common jester may have wit but not wisdom.Young.
A jest driven too far brings home hate.
A joke never gains an enemy but often loses a friend.
A joke should not be carried too far.Latin.
All in the way of a joke the wolf goes to the ass.Spanish.
An ill-timed jest hath ruined many,
And gentle dulness ever loves a joke.Pope.
Away with such jests, there is no good in being malignant.
Better lose a jest than a friend.
Drop the jest when it is most amusing.Italian.
Good jests bite like lambs, not like dogs.
He that jokes confesses.Italian.
He that would jest must take a jest,
Else to let it alone were best.Dutch.
His back is broad enough to bear jests.
If you be a jester keep your wit until you have use for it.
It is not good jesting with God, death or the devil.Arabian.
It is past joking when the head’s off.
It requires a surgical operation to get a joke well into a Scotch understanding.Sidney Smith.
Jesters do oft prove prophets.
Jesting lies bring serious sorrows.
Jest not in earnest.Motto of the Margrave of Brandenburg.
Jest not with a rude man lest thy ancestors be disgraced.Bible.
Jest not with the eye nor religion.
Jest so it may not turn in earnest.Spanish.
Jest with an ass and he will flap you in the face with his tail.
Jests are seldom good the first time, but the second distasteful.
Jests, like sweetmeats, have often sour sauce.
Jest with your equals.Danish.
Jesting costs money.Spanish.
Leave off the jest when it is merriest.Spanish.
Manual jokes are clowns’ jokes.French, Spanish.
Many a true word spoken in jest.Italian.
Much better lose a jest than a friend.
Never joke with stupid people.
No jesting with edge tools or with bell ropes.
Of all the griefs that harass the distressed,
Sure the most bitter is a scornful jest.Johnson.
Rather spoil your joke than lose your friend.Scotch.
Some who jest tell tales of themselves.French.
That’s the cream of the joke.
The jest’s propriety lies in the ear of him who hears it, never in the tongue of him who makes it.
The truest jests sound worst in guilty ears.
The wise make jests and fools repeat them.
The worst jests are those that are true.French.
There are jokes like diamonds that take infinitely less time to find than to polish.Punch.
There is no worse joke than a true one.Italian, Spanish.
To jest is tolerable, but to do harm by jest is insufferable.
True jests breed bad blood.
True jokes never please.French.
We knock in jest and it is opened in earnest.German.
When the demand is a jest the fittest answer is a scoff.Archimedes.
When the jest is at its best, ’twill be well to let it rest.German.