James Thurber Quotes - Page 2

Quotes about:

• I myself have known some profoundly thoughtful dogs.

  James Thurber

  Dog, Thoughtful, Puppy

  22 Copy quote

• Why do you have to be a nonconformist like everybody else?

  James Thurber

  Investing, Nonconformist, Non Conformist

  22 Copy quote

• The act of writing is either something the writer dreads or actually likes, and I actually like it. Even re-writing's fun. You're getting somewhere, whether it seems to move or not.

  James Thurber

  Fun, Moving, Writing

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

  26 Copy quote

• Americans want to go to heaven without dying.

  James Thurber

  Heaven, Dying, Want

  15 Copy quote

• The nation that complacently and fearfully allows its artists and writers to become suspected rather than respected is no longer regarded as a nation possessed with humor or depth.

  James Thurber

  Humor, Artist, Depth

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

  45 Copy quote

• But those rare souls whose spirit gets magically into the hearts of men, leave behind them something more real and warmly personal than bodily presence, an ineffable and eternal thing. It is everlasting life touching us as something more than a vague, recondite concept. The sound of a great name dies like an echo; the splendor of fame fades into nothing; but the grace of a fine spirit pervades the places through which it has passed, like the haunting loveliness of mignonette.

  James Thurber

  Real, Heart, Men

  "Collecting Himself". Book by James Thurber, 1989.

  17 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

  40 Copy quote

• The things we laugh at are awful while they are going on, but get funny when we look back. And other people laugh because they've been through it too. The closest thing to humor is tragedy.

  James Thurber

  Humor, People, Laughing

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

  24 Copy quote

• One martini is all right. Two are too many, and three are not enough.

  James Thurber

  Drinking, Beer, Two

  33 Copy quote

• Man is flying too fast for a world that is round. Soon he will catch up with himself in a great rear end collision.

  James Thurber

  Travel, Airplane, Men

  James Thurber (1956). “Further fables for our time”

  13 Copy quote

• Progress was all right. Only it went on too long.

  James Thurber

  Funny, Witty, Humorous

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• Editing should be, especially in the case of old writers, a counselling rather than a collaborating task. The tendency of the writer-editor to collaborate is natural, but he should say to himself, 'How can I help this writer to say it better in his own style?' and avoid 'How can I show him how I would write it, if it were my piece?'

  James Thurber

  Writing, Editing, Editors

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

  14 Copy quote

• Don't get it right, just get it written.

  James Thurber

  Inspirational Life, Writing, Comedy

  James Thurber (1996). “James Thurber: Writings & Drawings (including The Secret Life of Walter Mitty)”, p.562, Library of America

  11 Copy quote

• Women deserve to have more than 12 years between 28 and 40.

  James Thurber

  Years, Deserve

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• 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

  26 Copy quote

• Love is what you've been through with somebody.

  James Thurber

  Love, Marriage, Valentines Day

  27 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

• The past is an old armchair in the attic, the present an ominous ticking sound, and the future is anybody's guess.

  James Thurber

  Past, Sound, Comedy

  23 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.

  17 Copy quote

• Remember laughter. You'll need it even in the blessed isles of Ever After.

  James Thurber

  Laughter, Blessed, Needs

  James Thurber (1996). “Writings and Drawings”, Library of America

  9 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

• If you wonder which is the stronger sex, watch which one twists the other around her little finger.

  James Thurber

  Sex, Stronger, Twists

  4 Copy quote

• Let the meek inherit the earth -- they have it coming to them.

  James Thurber

  Funny, Humor, Modern Life

  4 Copy quote

• With sixty staring me in the face, I have developed inflammation of the sentence structure and definite hardening of the paragraphs.

  James Thurber

  Birthday, Sarcastic, Writing

  1955 In the New York Post, 30 Jun.

  9 Copy quote

• Every time is a time for comedy in a world of tension that would languish without it. But I cannot confine myself to lightness in a period of human life that demands light. We all know that, as the old adage has it, "It is later than you think." But I also say occasionally: "It is lighter than you think." In this light let's not look back in anger, or forward in fear, but around in awareness.

  James Thurber

  Thinking, Light, Looks

  "Lanterns and Lances". Book by James Thurber. Foreword, 1961.

  8 Copy quote

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