All men should strive to learn before they die, what they are running from, and to, and why.
JAMES THURBERThe trouble with the lost generation is that it didn’t get lost enough.
More James Thurber Quotes
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I myself have known some profoundly thoughtful dogs.
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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.
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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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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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Man is flying too fast for a world that is round. Soon he will catch up with himself in a great rear end collision.
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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 difference between our decadence and the Russians is that while theirs is brutal, ours is apathetic.
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The unicorn is a mythical beast.
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Beautiful things don’t ask for attention.
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You can fool too many of the people too much of the time.
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Well, if I called the wrong number, why did you answer the phone?
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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.
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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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Women are wiser than men because they know less and understand more.
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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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Sixty minutes of thinking of any kind is bound to lead to confusion and unhappiness.
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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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Time is for dragonflies and angels. The former live too little and the latter live too long.
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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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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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Don’t get it right, just get it written.
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Writers of comedy have outlook, whereas writers of tragedy have, according to them, insight.
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Comedy has ceased to be a challenge to the mental processes. It has become a therapy of relaxation, a kind of tranquilizing drug.
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It is better to know some of the questions than all of the answers.
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Mutual suspicions of mental inadequacy are common during the first year of any marriage.
JAMES THURBER