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A burden in the bush is worth two on your hands.

James Thurber

I never quite know when I’m not writing. Sometimes my wife comes up to me at a party and says, “Dammit, Thurber, stop writing.” She usually catches me in the middle of a paragraph.
JAMES THURBER

Catch Herself Known Myself Poet Quite 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
The past is an old armchair in the attic, the present an ominous ticking sound, and the future is anybody’s guess.
JAMES THURBER

Future Guess Past Sound
There is no safety in numbers, or in anything else.
JAMES THURBER

Mathematics Safety
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.
JAMES THURBER

Dog Happiness Man Strange 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
I always begin at the left with the opening word of the sentence and read toward the right and I recommend this method.
JAMES THURBER

Beginning Method Myself Open Word
One martini is all right. Two are too many, and three are not enough.
JAMES THURBER

Alcohol Drink Enough Right
Well, if I called the wrong number, why did you answer the phone?
JAMES THURBER

Call Myself Number Phone Wrong Yourself
Let us not look back in anger, nor forward in fear, but around in awareness.
JAMES THURBER

Angry Awareness Fear Future Past
But what is all this fear of and opposition to Oblivion? What is the matter with the soft Darkness, the Dreamless Sleep?
JAMES THURBER

Darkness Dreams Fear Sleep
Looks can be deceiving; it’s eating that’s believing.
JAMES THURBER

Appearance Believe Eat One Liner
Writers of comedy have outlook, whereas writers of tragedy have, according to them, insight.
JAMES THURBER

Insight Tragedy Wisdom Writing
If I have any beliefs about immortality, it is that certain dogs I have known will go to heaven, and very, very few persons.
JAMES THURBER

Belief Dog Heaven Immortal Known Myself Person
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 am not a cat man, but a dog man, and all felines can tell this at a glance – a sharp, vindictive glance.
JAMES THURBER

Man Myself Sharp
A pinch of probability is worth a pound of perhaps.
JAMES THURBER

Probability Thinking Worth
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
Comedy has ceased to be a challenge to the mental processes. It has become a therapy of relaxation, a kind of tranquilizing drug.
JAMES THURBER

Challenge Comedy Drugs Therapy
There is no exception to the rule that every rule has an exception.
JAMES THURBER

Exception Rule
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
Sixty minutes of thinking of any kind is bound to lead to confusion and unhappiness.
JAMES THURBER

Confusion Happiness Thinking
Unless artists can remember what it was to be a little boy, they are only half complete as artist and as man.
JAMES THURBER

Artist Childhood Man Remember
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

Animal Dog Fun Laughter Man Reason
Mutual suspicions of mental inadequacy are common during the first year of any marriage.
JAMES THURBER

Marriage Mutual Thinking
All men should strive to learn before they die, what they are running from, and to, and why.
JAMES THURBER

Death Learning Man Strive Wisdom
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

A burden in the bush is worth two on your hands.

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A burden in the bush is worth two on your hands.

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