Boys are beyond the range of anybody’s sure understanding, at least when they are between the ages of 18 months and 90 years.
JAMES THURBERI have lived in the East for nearly thirty years now, but many of my books prove that I am never very far away from Ohio in my thoughts, and that the clocks that strike in my dreams are often the clocks of Columbus.
More James Thurber Quotes
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But what is all this fear of and opposition to Oblivion? What is the matter with the soft Darkness, the Dreamless Sleep?
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The trouble with the lost generation is that it didn’t get lost enough.
JAMES THURBER -
The wit makes fun of other persons; the satirist makes fun of the world; the humorist makes fun of himself.
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Two is company, four is a party, three is a crowd. One is a wanderer.
JAMES THURBER -
A burden in the bush is worth two on your hands.
JAMES THURBER -
Writers of comedy have outlook, whereas writers of tragedy have, according to them, insight.
JAMES THURBER -
The difference between our decadence and the Russians is that while theirs is brutal, ours is apathetic.
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Reason is 6/7 of treason.
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You might as well fall flat on your face as lean over too far backward.
JAMES THURBER -
I don’t believe the writer should know too much where he’s going. If he does, he runs into old man blueprintold man propaganda.
JAMES THURBER -
Time is for dragonflies and angels. The former live too little and the latter live too long.
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When all things are equal, translucence in writing is more effective than transparency, just as glow is more revealing than glare.
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Beautiful things don’t ask for attention.
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I write humor the way a surgeon operates, because it is a livelihood, because I have a great urge to do it, because many interesting challenges are set up, and because I have the hope it may do some good.
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If I have any beliefs about immortality, it is that certain dogs I have known will go to heaven, and very, very few persons.
JAMES THURBER






