"Sarcasm is the lowest form of wit."

[Dalby]

I have known this quotation for as long as I can remember.

I have spent all morning trying to track its source. Can someone here
help me please?

Thank you,
Dalby.

[The Sanity Inspector]

On Tue, 12 Dec 2000 13:20:25 +1100, Dalby
<Da...@DELETETHISdingoblue.net.au> shared with usenet this thought:

>
>I have known this quotation for as long as I can remember.
>
>I have spent all morning trying to track its source. Can someone here
>help me please?

I've heard that a pun is the lowest form of wit, but never sarcasm.
The most familiar quote about sarcasm I know is Thomas Carlyle's:

Sarcasm is the language of the devil; for which reason I have
long since as good as renounced it.

--
bruce
The dignified don't even enter in the game.
--The Jam

[yoda...@my-deja.com]

Wow, now I feel witless and low... I *adore* sarcasm. I mean, I do
try never to direct it at a person, politicians excepted... :-)

Renee

In article <3a35a540...@news.mindspring.com>,

Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/
Before you buy.

[PeterP6268]

In article <MPG.14a036793...@news.ozemail.com.au>, Dalby
<Da...@DELETETHISdingoblue.net.au> writes:

>I have known this quotation for as long as I can remember.
>
>I have spent all morning trying to track its source. Can someone here
>help me please?

Sorry Darby, not what you asked for, but in the ballpark...

Humour does not include sarcasm, invalid irony, sardonicism,
innuendo, or any other form of cruelty. When these things
are raised to a high point they can become wit, but unlike the
French and the English, we have not been much good at wit
since the days of Benjamin Franklin.
--James Thurber (1894-1961), U.S. humorist, illustrator.

PP

[haggis]

I've done some searching of the news groups and it's attributed, either pun
or sarcasm, to Shakespeare, Wilde or Freud.

But I still ain't seen the original quote.

"Dalby" <Da...@DELETETHISdingoblue.net.au> wrote in message
news:MPG.14a036793...@news.ozemail.com.au...

[Lemming]

On Tue, 12 Dec 2000 18:44:12 -0000, "haggis" <c...@ntlworld.com> wrote:

>I've done some searching of the news groups and it's attributed, either pun
>or sarcasm, to Shakespeare, Wilde or Freud.

My memory tells me it's: -

"Sarcasm is the lowest form of wit; but therein lies the basis of all
wit".
-- Oscar Wilde

>But I still ain't seen the original quote.

Nor have I, and memory can be faulty.

Regards,

Derek Sorensen
--
Curiosity *may* have killed Schrodinger's cat.

[Ptbrady]

Maybe somebody famous said that sarcasm is the lowest form of wit, but that's
wrong; Parody is the lowest form of wit. Pete Brady

[haggis]

That sounds like the best bet to date - I'll need to investigate that one
further.

"Lemming" <l3m...@btinternet.com> wrote in message
news:3a37b0b9....@news.cis.dfn.de...

[Dalby]

In article <MPG.14a036793...@news.ozemail.com.au>,
Da...@DELETETHISdingoblue.net.au says...

Thanks to everyone who replied to my question.

All the best for the holiday season,
Dalby.

[Robert M. Wilson]

"Dalby" <Da...@DELETETHISdingoblue.net.au> wrote in message
news:MPG.14a036793...@news.ozemail.com.au...
>

> I have known this quotation for as long as I can remember.
>
> I have spent all morning trying to track its source. Can someone here
> help me please?

This has me intrigued. Although I am familiar with the dictum in various
forms (sarcasm/pun/parody) I can't track it down anywhere.
I suspect that it was inspired by "Brevity is the soul of wit." -- Hamlet,
but have no evidence for it.

'Sarcasm' doesn't seem to have been highly thought of by a number of
writers:

Sarcasm, I now see to be, in general, the language of the devil.
--Carlyle

A sneer is the weapon of the weak, Like other devil's weapons, it is always
cunningly ready at our hand, and there is more poison in the handle than in
the point.
--Lowell

He that cometh to seek after knowledge with a mind to scorn and censure
shall be sure to find matter for his humour, but none for his instruction.
--Bacon