Comedy has ceased to be a challenge to the mental processes. It has become a therapy of relaxation, a kind of tranquilizing drug.
JAMES THURBERI 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.
More James Thurber Quotes
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Reason is 6/7 of treason.
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Humor is emotional chaos remembered in tranquility.
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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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There are two kinds of light – the glow that illuminates, and the glare that obscures.
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Humor and pathos, tears and laughter are, in the highest expression of human character and achievement, inseparable.
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Sixty minutes of thinking of any kind is bound to lead to confusion and unhappiness.
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Let the meek inherit the earth — they have it coming to them.
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You can fool too many of the people too much of the time.
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Man is troubled by what might be called the Dog Wish, a strange and involved compulsion to be as happy and carefree as a dog.
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I always begin at the left with the opening word of the sentence and read toward the right and I recommend this method.
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The most dangerous food is wedding cake.
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The unicorn is a mythical beast.
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The dog has got more fun out of Man than Man has got out of the dog, for the clearly demonstrable reason that Man is the more laughable of the two animals
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Where most of us end up there is no knowing, but the hellbent get where they are going.
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Don’t get it right, just get it written.
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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.
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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.
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Looks can be deceiving; it’s eating that’s believing.
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Two is company, four is a party, three is a crowd. One is a wanderer.
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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.
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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.
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Don’t count your boobies until they are hatched.
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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.
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There is something about a poet which leads us to believe that he died, in many cases, as long as 20 years before his birth.
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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.
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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.
JAMES THURBER