“Plagiarists are always suspicious of being stolen from, as pickpockets are observed commonly to walk with their hands in their breeches' pockets.”

A sharp analogy for the anxiety of the literary thief · Table Talk, 4 January 1823

• Authorship
• Crime
• Wit

“Humour is consistent with pathos, whilst wit is not.”

Distinguishing the emotional range of humour from that of wit · Letter to a friend, c. 1821

• Emotion
• Humour
• Wit

“Nature is a wary wily long-breathed old Witch, tough-lived as a Turtle and divisible as the Polyp.”

A vivid personification of nature's resilience and cunning · Letter to James Gillman, 9 October 1825

• Metaphor
• Nature
• Wit

“A rogue is a roundabout fool.”

A terse observation on the kinship of cunning and folly · Table Talk, 4 January 1823

• Character
• Folly
• Wit