The wit makes fun of other persons; the satirist makes fun of the world; the humorist makes fun of himself.
JAMES THURBERThe laughter of man is more terrible than his tears, and takes more forms -hollow, heartless, mirthless, maniacal.
More James Thurber Quotes
-
-
She wasn’t much to look at but she was something to think about.
JAMES THURBER -
But what is all this fear of and opposition to Oblivion? What is the matter with the soft Darkness, the Dreamless Sleep?
JAMES THURBER -
Let us not look back in anger, nor forward in fear, but around in awareness.
JAMES THURBER -
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.
JAMES THURBER -
Unless artists can remember what it was to be a little boy, they are only half complete as artist and as man.
JAMES THURBER -
Humor is a serious thing. I like to think of it as one of our greatest earliest natural resources, which must be preserved at all cost.
JAMES THURBER -
I myself have known some profoundly thoughtful dogs.
JAMES THURBER -
Looks can be deceiving; it’s eating that’s believing.
JAMES THURBER -
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 -
There is no safety in numbers, or in anything else.
JAMES THURBER -
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 -
I can feel a thing I cannot touch and touch a thing I cannot feel. The first is sad and sorry, the second is your heart.
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 -
Well, if I called the wrong number, why did you answer the phone?
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