In all thy humours, whether grave or mellow, Thou'rt such a touchy, testy, pleasant fellow; Hast so much wit, and mirth, and spleen about thee, There is no living with thee, nor without thee.

-Addison,Joseph
  In The Spectator, no.68,18 May.

In youth open your mind, And let all learning in; Words the head does not shape Are worthless, out and in. Words wit has not salted,No nearer the heart than the lip, Are nothing more than wind, A puppy's insolent yelp.

-Anonymous
c.1500  'To a Boy'. Translated from the Irish by Michael O'Donovan ('Frank O'Connor').

   My Love in her attire doth show her wit, It doth so well become her; For every season she hath dressings fit, For winter, spring, and summer. No beauty she doth miss When all her robes are on; But beauty's self she is When all her robes are gone.

-Anonymous
'Madrigal'. Collected in F Davison (ed) Poetical Rhapsody (1602).

For [the] quick in wit and light in manners be either seldom troubled or very soon weary, in carrying a very heavy purse.

-Ascham, Roger
  The Schoolmaster, bk.2.

Oh! it is onlya novel!†only some work in which the most thorough knowledge of human nature, the happiest delineationof itsvarieties,theliveliesteffusions of wit and humour are conveyed to the world in the best chosen language.

-Austen,Jane
  Northanger Abbey, ch.5.

If a man write little, he had need have a great memory; if he confer little, hehad need have a present wit; and if he read little he had need have much cunning, to seem to know that he doth not.

-Bacon, Francis,Viscount St Albans
  Essays, no.50,'Of Studies'.

But had I wist, before I kiss'd, That love had been sae ill to win. I'd lock'd my heart in a case o'gowd, And pinn'd it wi'a siller pin.

-Ballads
pre-1566  'Waly, Waly', stanza 4.

   What things have we seen, Done at the Mermaid! heard words that have been So nimble, and so full of subtil flame, As if that every one from whence they came, Had meant to put his whole wit in a jest, And had resolv'd to live a fool, the rest Of his dull life.

-Beaumont, Francis
  Letter to Ben Jonson, verses prefacing  Jonson's Volpone.

And though she had some decays in the face, she had none in her sense and wit.

-Behan, Brendan Francis
  Oroonoko, or the Royal Slave.

We grant, although he had much wit, He was very shy of using it; As being loath to wear it out, And therefore bore it not about, Unless on holidays, or so, As men their best apparel do.

-Butler, Samuel
  Hudibras, pt.1, canto1, l.45^50.

He knew what's what, and that's as high As metaphysic wit can fly.

-Butler, Samuel
  Hudibras, pt.1, canto1, l.149^50.

Neither have the heart to stay, Nor wit enough to run away.

-Butler, Samuel
  Hudibras, pt.3, canto 3, l.569^60.

Here lies a king, that ruled as he thought fit The universal monarchy of wit.

-Carew,Thomas
  'An Elegy upon the Death of the Dean of Paul's, Dr.  John Donne'.

Marriage is the grave or tomb of wit.

-Cavendish, Margaret, Duchess of Newcastle
  Plays,'Nature's Three Daughters', pt.2, act 5, sc.20.

   What is an Epigram? a dwarfish whole, Its body brevity, and wit its soul.

-Coleridge, Samuel Taylor
  'Epigram'.

To find a young fellow that is neither a wit in his own eye, nor a fool in the eye of the world, is a very hard task.

-Congreve,William
  Sir Sampson to  Angelica. Love for Love, act 5, sc.2.

Awit should no more be sincerethana woman constant; one argues a decay of parts, as t'other of beauty.

-Congreve,William
  The Way of the World, act1, sc.6.

What, he speaks unseasonable truths sometimes, because he has not wit enough to invent an evasion.

-Congreve,William
  The Way of the World, act1, sc.6.

His wit invites you by his looks to come, But when you knock it never is at home.

-Cowper,William
  Poems 'Conversation', l.303^4.

Old Mother Wit, and Nature gave Shakespeare and Fletcher all they have; In Spenser, and in Jonson, Art Of slower Nature got the start.

-Denham, SirJohn
  'On Mr  Abraham Cowley'.