In The Ideal of Culture, his latest and best anthology of essays, Joseph Epstein devotes one of his chapters to a discussion of wit. He observes, “Wit is the expression of those who understand and are able to formulate and deflate in a pleasing ay what they see as pretension, false self-esteem, empty ambition, snobbery, and much else worth mocking in life. We need wits on the scene, like doctors on the case. Without them to remind us how absurd we can be, we fall into the grave danger of taking ourselves altogether too seriously.”For example:

o When coming out of a bunker during a severe German air attack, looking up at a sky raining enemy bombs, Evelyn Waugh remarked, “Like everything German, vastly overdone.”

o Kingsley Amis: “Laziness has become the chief characteristic of journalism, displacing incompetence.”

o “A cynic is someone who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing.” Oscar Wilde

o When asked about his new psychotherapist (“shrink”), George S. Kaufman replied, “The guy asks too many goddamn personal questions.”

o After walking into a less-than-exclusive Hollywood party, agent Sue Mengers observed, “Schindler’s B-list.”

o A graduate student read his scholarly article to his mentor and at one point asked if he was causing him to fall asleep. “No, you’re keeping me awake.”

o Oscar Levant: “I knew Doris Day before she was a virgin.”

o Noting that children in America have over-eager parents who are much more protective each year, Fran Lebowitz predicted that “the man who invents the first shaving mirror for strollers is going to make a fortune.”

o Two with source unknown:

• “So now Blagojevich has been double impeached which sounds like a Ben & Jerry flavor.”
• “I believe we can build a better world! Of course, it’ll take a whole lot of rock, water & dirt. Also not sure where to put it.”

Joseph Epstein views wit as a gift. “But without an interesting point of view, a detached angle on life, a wide culture, the gift will come to naught.”

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Joseph Epstein is the author of the best-selling Snobbery and of Friendship, as well as the short story collections The Goldin Boys and Fabulous Small Jews, among other books, and was formerly editor of the American Scholar. His work has appeared in The New Yorker, the Wall Street Journal, The Standard, Harper’s Magazine, the Atlantic Monthly, and other magazines.