Comedy has ceased to be a challenge to the mental processes. It has become a therapy of relaxation, a kind of tranquilizing drug.
JAMES THURBERBeautiful things don’t ask for attention.
More James Thurber Quotes
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I 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.
JAMES THURBER -
Let the meek inherit the earth — they have it coming to them.
JAMES THURBER -
Where most of us end up there is no knowing, but the hellbent get where they are going.
JAMES THURBER -
A false or misunderstood word may create as much disaster as a sudden thoughtless act.
JAMES THURBER -
She wasn’t much to look at but she was something to think about.
JAMES THURBER -
Humor and pathos, tears and laughter are, in the highest expression of human character and achievement, inseparable.
JAMES THURBER -
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 -
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
JAMES THURBER -
Reason is 6/7 of treason.
JAMES THURBER -
Somebody has said that woman’s place is in the wrong. That’s fine. What the wrong needs is a woman’s presence and a woman’s touch. She is far better equipped than men to set it right.
JAMES THURBER -
You might as well fall flat on your face as lean over too far backward.
JAMES THURBER -
It is better to know some of the questions than all of the answers.
JAMES THURBER -
Humourists lead… an existence of jumpiness and apprehension. They sit on the edge of the chair of Literature. In the house of Life they have the feeling that they have never taken off their overcoats.
JAMES THURBER -
Art – the one achievement of man which has made the long trip up from all fours seem well advised
JAMES THURBER -
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