“If the end of wit be not to render oneself agreeable, I shall scarce envy them any other use they can make of it.”

Setting sociability, not display, as the proper use of wit · Preface to Letters and Poems, Amorous and Gallant, 1692

• Conversation
• Courtesy
• Wit

“An epigram, it is true, is but a trifle, but so difficult a trifle that Rapin says it is enough to have made one good in one's lifetime.”

On the craft of the short form, and why a single success may be enough · Letter to John Dryden, about 1691

• Craft
• Poetry
• Wit