James Thurber Quotes

Quotes about:

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  Let us not look back in anger, nor forward in fear, but around in awareness.

  James Thurber

  Love, Inspirational, Life

  James Thurber (1983). “Credos and Curios”, HarperCollins

  88 Copy quote

• It is better to know some of the questions than all of the answers.

  James Thurber

  Love, Life, Relationship

  118 Copy quote

• There are two kinds of light - the glow that illuminates, and the glare that obscures.

  James Thurber

  Inspirational, Life, Light

  "Lanterns and Lances‎". Book by James Thurber, p. 146, 1961.

  113 Copy quote
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  All men should strive to learn before they die, what they are running from, and to, and why.

  James Thurber

  Running, Learning, Humor

  James Thurber (1978). “Further fables for our time”, Simon & Schuster

  89 Copy quote

• There is no exception to the rule that every rule has an exception.

  James Thurber

  Yoga, Exception To The Rule, Exception

  37 Copy quote

• Women are wiser than men because they know less and understand more.

  James Thurber

  Funny, Witty, Maturity

  96 Copy quote

• You can fool too many of the people too much of the time.

  James Thurber

  Wisdom, Time, People

  'The Owl who was God' in 'New Yorker' 29 April 1939

  31 Copy quote

• Beautiful things don't ask for attention.

  James Thurber

  Beautiful, Attention, Secret Life

  29 Copy quote

• I do not have a psychiatrist and I do not want one, for the simple reason that if he listened to me long enough, he might become disturbed.

  James Thurber

  Life, Death, Simple

  James Thurber (1983). “Credos and Curios”, HarperCollins

  23 Copy quote

• History is replete with proofs, from Cato the Elder to Kennedy the Younger, that if you scratch a statesman you find an actor, but it is becoming harder and harder, in our time, to tell government from show business.

  James Thurber

  Government, Becoming, Scratches

  James Thurber (1990). “Collecting Himself: James Thurber on Writing and Writers, Humor and Himself”

  17 Copy quote

• Man has gone long enough, or even too long, without being man enough to face the simple truth that the trouble with man is man.

  James Thurber

  Truth, Simple, Men

  James Thurber (1961). “Lanterns & Lances”, New York : Harper

  59 Copy quote

• The most dangerous food is wedding cake.

  James Thurber

  Wedding, Food, Cake

  65 Copy quote

• A false or misunderstood word may create as much disaster as a sudden thoughtless act.

  James Thurber

  Communication, Misunderstood, May

  James Thurber (1961). “Lanterns & lances”

  49 Copy quote

• I never had a dog that showed a human fear of death. Death, to a dog, is the final unavoidable compulsion, the least ineluctable scent on a fearsome trail, but they like to face it alone, going out into the woods, among the leaves, if there are any leaves when their time comes, enduring without sentimental human distraction the Last Loneliness, which they are wise enough to know cannot be shared by anyone.

  James Thurber

  Death, Wise, Dog

  46 Copy quote

• I think that maybe if women and children were in charge we would get somewhere.

  James Thurber

  Love, Life, Relationship

  James Thurber, Harrison Kinney, Rosemary A. Thurber (2002). “The Thurber letters: the wit, wisdom, and surprising life of James Thurber”, Simon and Schuster

  46 Copy quote

• A pinch of probability is worth a pound of perhaps.

  James Thurber

  Pounds, Probability

  Lanterns and Lances Such a Phrase as Drifts Through Dreams

  17 Copy quote

• A burden in the bush is worth two on your hands.

  James Thurber

  Responsibility, Hands, Two

  James Thurber (1996). “James Thurber: Writings & Drawings (including The Secret Life of Walter Mitty)”, p.552, Library of America

  28 Copy quote

• The wit makes fun of other persons; the satirist makes fun of the world; the humorist makes fun of himself.

  James Thurber

  Fun, World, Comedy

  Interview with Edward R. Murrow on "Small World", CBS-TV, March 25, 1959.

  18 Copy quote

• A lady of 47 who has been married 27 years and has six children knows what love really is and once described it for me like this: 'Love is what you've been through with somebody'.

  James Thurber

  Love, Children, Years

  19 Copy quote

• She wasn't much to look at but she was something to think about.

  James Thurber

  Thinking, Looks

  James Thurber (1994). “Ninety-two Stories”, Outlet

  13 Copy quote

• We are a nation that has always gone in for the loud laugh, the wow, the yak, the belly laugh, and the dozen other labels for the roll- em-in-the-aisles gagerissimo. This is the kind of laugh that delights actors, directors, and producers, but dismays writers of comedy because it is the laugh that often dies in the lobby. The appreciative smile, the chuckle, the soundless mirth, so important to the success of comedy, cannot be understood unless one sits among the audience and feels the warmth created by the quality of laughter that the audience takes home with it.

  James Thurber

  Laughter, War, Home

  James Thurber (1990). “Collecting Himself: James Thurber on Writing and Writers, Humor and Himself”

  9 Copy quote

• Two is company, four is a party, three is a crowd. One is a wanderer.

  James Thurber

  Party, Two, Three

  James Thurber (1996). “James Thurber: Writings & Drawings (including The Secret Life of Walter Mitty)”, p.355, Library of America

  41 Copy quote

• Humor 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

  Humor, Sarcasm, Doe

  27 Copy quote

• Sixty minutes of thinking of any kind is bound to lead to confusion and unhappiness.

  James Thurber

  Kindness, Thinking, Sixty Minutes

  James Thurber (1996). “James Thurber: Writings & Drawings (including The Secret Life of Walter Mitty)”, p.392, Library of America

  21 Copy quote

• The dog has seldom been successful in pulling man up to its level of sagacity, but man has frequently dragged the dog down to his.

  James Thurber

  Dog, Successful, Animal

  James Thurber (1955). “Thurber's Dog's: A Collection of the Master's Dogs”

  39 Copy quote

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