All you need is love. But a little chocolate now and then doesn’t hurt. ~Charles M. Schulz
Okay, I admit it. I’d never heard of the word witling until I was poking around tonight to find some word definitions. To begin with, I’d thought to talk about the oddities of some words in the English language on this post, but I got sidetracked by wittiness and Valentine’s Day. A day of chocolates and roses and romance is on the way this week, you know. And Valentine’s Day is a very good day to be witty and fleet of tongue.
I can be witty now and again, but I wouldn’t call myself a witling. Actually, I think calling someone a witling may not be considered a compliment. The definition I found online “a person who considers themselves to be witty” also labeled the word “archaic” and worse “derogatory.” So we’ll just say being witty is fun as long as we don’t tell everybody we’re witty. Let others listen to what we say and decide if we’re witty or not. I guess nobody likes an arrogant witty person who might be a witling. 🙂
Back in 1779 by Fanny Burney wrote a play titled “The Witlings.” Her father talked her out of publishing it then because he thought her comedy of manners was too close to the truth about some of her acquaintances and that it would bring her trouble. So the play wasn’t published until 1994 and not adapted for modern audiences until 2014. Fanny Burney never got to enjoy seeing her comedy of manners play out on stage.
For fun I gathered up some sayings about love. You can decide if these authors, some unknown, could be considered witty.
I love you so much I’d fight a bear for you. Well not a grizzly bear because they have claws, and not a panda bear because they know Kung Fu… But a care bear, I’d definitely fight a care bear for you. ~Anonymous
That one made me smile. Most of us can fight those care bears. The one below has a lot of truth in it.
If you text ‘I love you’ to a person and the person writes back an emoji no matter what that emoji is, they don’t love you back. ~Chelsea Peretti
Gravitation is not responsible for people falling in love. ~Albert Einstein
Einstein is obviously trying to make sure nobody confuses science with emotions. But the truth is as Dr. Seuss says in the next quote, we’re all a little weird. I need to remember than when I’m trying to make my characters come to life in my stories. For a certainty, I have salted my stories with bona fide unusual characters along the way. Fern in the Rosey Corner books. Granny Em in These Healing Hills. Wes in the Heart of Hollyhill books. I’ve come up with a new one for my work in progress. Perdita Sweet. We’ll see how she turns out.
We are all a little weird and life’s a little weird, and when we find someone whose weirdness is compatible with ours, we join up with them and fall in mutual weirdness and call it love. ~Theodore Geisel (Dr. Seuss)
And finally here’s some practical advice from Henry Kissinger and Eric Segal.
Nobody will ever win the battle of the sexes. There’s too much fraternizing with the enemy. ~Henry Kissinger
True love comes quietly, without banners or flashing lights. If you hear bells, get your ears checked. ~Erich Segal
However, if after reading all these witty quotes, you still intend to approach that favorite person to let them know how much you care, here are a few lines you might practice before next Friday.
“Before I met you, I never knew what it was like to smile for no reason.”
“I could conquer the world with just one hand, as long as you were holding the other.”
“I love you more than yesterday but less than tomorrow.”
All those sound pretty romantic. Add some roses and candy and true love might be happening.
Do you like being around witty people?
If you could order a Valentine’s Day gift for yourself what would be your favorite? And why not buy yourself something? Sometimes we need a treat in the middle of a gray and rainy February.
Comments 10
Happy Valentine’s Day to all!!!
❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️
Author
Thanks, Karen. I so appreciate you joining the conversation here .
I loved those large beautifully decorated red heart shaped boxes with all the chocolate bon bon selections. One does not see them very often. In fact I haven’t seen any in years. Perhaps I don’t go shopping enough or…I shop at all the wrong places! The last box I got like that was in 1967! That would be my pick. 😊❤️😊
Author
My sister’s boyfriend used to buy her one of those beautiful heart shaped boxes every year. They would have ruffly ribbon decorations . I remember being very envious which of course, is not good. My sweetheart didn’t have the money for those kinds of boxes and if he had, he would have probably been saying you could get three times as much candy in a plain box. LOL. I might have said that too, but the heart boxes were lovely. I haven’t seen any of those fancy ones for years either, Karen. I see plain cardboard heart shaped boxes, but it could be I’m not shopping in the right places for that either. Perhaps chocolate strawberries have taken over the romantic spot for Valentine’s.
I love this post and all the witty sayings. It put a smile on my face this dreary, rainy morning.
Author
Glad you enjoyed the sayings, Becky. We do need some smiles in this dreary gray weather. And they say more rain on the way. Almost making me wish for snow. 🙂
Definitely a book. A little chocolate, and a chai tea added to it doesn’t hurt. 😊
Author
Sounds like a plan, Lisa. I’ll take English breakfast tea instead to go with my book and lots of chocolate. 🙂
These are all cute! I enjoy witty folks.
If I gave myself a gift, it would be a gift card to Hobby Lobby or Amazon…because there’s no such thing as too much fabric or too many books. 🙂
I hope you have a great Valentine’s week, Ann!
Author
Those sound like good gifts anytime, Lavon. Well, maybe not Hobby Lobby for me. I’d just buy things for some project or other I’d probably never get around too. But to be honest, I’ve never been in a Hobby Lobby . I’ve heard they are fun places to shop.
Wishing you all the right kinds of love this week. Jesus loves us; this we know.