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

James Thurber

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

Definite Development Face Myself Structure
The laughter of man is more terrible than his tears, and takes more forms -hollow, heartless, mirthless, maniacal.
JAMES THURBER

Heartless Laughter Man Tears Terrible
Writers of comedy have outlook, whereas writers of tragedy have, according to them, insight.
JAMES THURBER

Insight Tragedy Wisdom Writing
There is no safety in numbers, or in anything else.
JAMES THURBER

Mathematics Safety
The most dangerous food is wedding cake.
JAMES THURBER

Cake Dangerous Food Marriage One Liner Sarcasm
Time is for dragonflies and angels. The former live too little and the latter live too long.
JAMES THURBER

Angel Lifespan Time
Discussion in America means dissent.
JAMES THURBER

Country Discussion
There are two kinds of light – the glow that illuminates, and the glare that obscures.
JAMES THURBER

Deep Glow Illumination Kind Light
The difference between our decadence and the Russians is that while theirs is brutal, ours is apathetic.
JAMES THURBER

Brutal Difference Ourselves
Comedy has to be done en clair. You can’t blunt the edge of wit or the point of satire with obscurity. Try to imagine a famous witty saying that is not immediately clear.
JAMES THURBER

Clear Comedy Famous Imagination Point
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 THURBER

Behavior Man Mindset Understand
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

Laughter People Tragedy
Humor and pathos, tears and laughter are, in the highest expression of human character and achievement, inseparable.
JAMES THURBER

Achievement Character Expression Humor Laughter Separate
I was seized by the stern hand of Compulsion, that dark, unreasonable Urge that impels women to clean house in the middle of the night.
JAMES THURBER

Cleaning Hands Night Reason
I think that maybe if women and children were in charge we would get somewhere.
JAMES THURBER

Children Position Thinking Woman
Americans want to go to heaven without dying.
JAMES THURBER

Death Deep Heaven Hypocrisy Sarcasm

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

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

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Popular Authors

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