Top 25 Quotes by Edwin Percy Whipple of 80 - Page 4

Every style formed elaborately on any model must be affected and straight-laced.

Every style formed elaborately on any model must be affected and straight-laced.

Style, Models, Affected

Irony is an insult conveyed in the form of a compliment.

Irony, Insult, Compliment

Edwin Percy Whipple (1851). “Literature and life, lects”, p.52

The essence of the ludicrous consists in surprise,--in unexpected terms of feeling and explosions of thought,--often bringing dissimilar things together with a shock; as when some wit called Boyle, the celebrated philosopher, the father of chemistry and brother of the Earl of Cork.

Edwin Percy Whipple

Brother, Father, Essence

Wit implies hatred or contempt of folly and crime, produces its effects by brisk shocks of surprise, uses the whip of scorpions and the branding-iron, stabs, stings, pinches, tortures, goads, teases, corrodes, undermines.

Edwin Percy Whipple

Iron, Hatred, Scorpions

Edwin Percy Whipple (1851). “Literature and life, lects”, p.46