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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

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 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

Goodness Hope Humor Interest Operate Surgeon Writing
Progress was all right. Only it went on too long.
JAMES THURBER

Progress Right Time
Sixty minutes of thinking of any kind is bound to lead to confusion and unhappiness.
JAMES THURBER

Confusion Happiness Thinking
So much has already been written about everything that you can’t find out anything about it.
JAMES THURBER

Finding Writing Yourself
The most dangerous food is wedding cake.
JAMES THURBER

Cake Dangerous Food Marriage One Liner Sarcasm
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
Reason is 6/7 of treason.
JAMES THURBER

Death One Liner Reason Treason
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

Feeling Heart Sadness Sorry Touch Yourself
Let the meek inherit the earth — they have it coming to them.
JAMES THURBER

Come Earth Inheritance Weakness
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
Women are wiser than men because they know less and understand more.
JAMES THURBER

Understand Wisdom Woman Yourself
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
Man is flying too fast for a world that is round. Soon he will catch up with himself in a great rear end collision.
JAMES THURBER

Collision Fly Greatness Man World
The nation that complacently and fearfully allows its artists and writers to become suspected rather than respected is no longer regarded as a nation possessed with humor or depth.
JAMES THURBER

Allow Fear Humor Nation Possession Regard Suspect Writing
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
Americans want to go to heaven without dying.
JAMES THURBER

Death Deep Heaven Hypocrisy Sarcasm
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
I myself have known some profoundly thoughtful dogs.
JAMES THURBER

Animal Dog Myself Thinking
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

Cost Greatness Humor Serious Thinking
You can fool too many of the people too much of the time.
JAMES THURBER

Fools People Time Yourself
Art – the one achievement of man which has made the long trip up from all fours seem well advised
JAMES THURBER

Achievement Advice Art Man
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
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.
JAMES THURBER

Disturb Himself Listening Reason
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
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
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

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.

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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.

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Popular Authors

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