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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

When all things are equal, translucence in writing is more effective than transparency, just as glow is more revealing than glare.
JAMES THURBER

Effective Equality Reveal Writing
There is no exception to the rule that every rule has an exception.
JAMES THURBER

Exception Rule
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.
JAMES THURBER

Dog Himself Level Man Success
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
A burden in the bush is worth two on your hands.
JAMES THURBER

Burden Hands Worth
Progress was all right. Only it went on too long.
JAMES THURBER

Progress Right Time
Man has gone long enough, or even too long, without being man enough to face the simple truth that the trouble with man is man.
JAMES THURBER

Enough Hard Time Man Simplicity Trouble Truth
Don’t get it right, just get it written.
JAMES THURBER

Right Writing
Where most of us end up there is no knowing, but the hellbent get where they are going.
JAMES THURBER

Destination Direction End Journey Path
Discussion in America means dissent.
JAMES THURBER

Country Discussion
Time is for dragonflies and angels. The former live too little and the latter live too long.
JAMES THURBER

Angel Lifespan Time
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

Believe Man Myself Old Writing
The wit makes fun of other persons; the satirist makes fun of the world; the humorist makes fun of himself.
JAMES THURBER

Funny Himself Person Smart World
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
It is better to know some of the questions than all of the answers.
JAMES THURBER

Answer Better Known Question
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

Book Dreams Evidence Live Myself Thinking
Women are wiser than men because they know less and understand more.
JAMES THURBER

Understand Wisdom Woman Yourself
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.
JAMES THURBER

Believe Born Leadership Poet
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

Edge Existence Literature
The unicorn is a mythical beast.
JAMES THURBER

Fantasy Myth Unicorn
Looks can be deceiving; it’s eating that’s believing.
JAMES THURBER

Appearance Believe Eat One Liner
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

Place Presence Right Woman Wrong
The trouble with the lost generation is that it didn’t get lost enough.
JAMES THURBER

Enough Generation Lost Trouble
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

Business Evidence Government History Ourselves Time
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.
JAMES THURBER

Act Move Myself Writing
I think that maybe if women and children were in charge we would get somewhere.
JAMES THURBER

Children Position Thinking Woman
A pinch of probability is worth a pound of perhaps.
JAMES THURBER

Probability Thinking Worth

Boys are beyond the range of anybody’s sure understanding, at least when they are between the ages of 18 months and 90 years.

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Boys are beyond the range of anybody’s sure understanding, at least when they are between the ages of 18 months and 90 years.

Related Topics

Popular Authors

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