James Thurber Quotes

Love is what you've been through with somebody.
James Thurber

Love, Through, Somebody

Humor is emotional chaos remembered in tranquility.
James Thurber

Humor, Emotional, Chaos

Let us not look back in anger, nor forward in fear, but around in awareness.
James Thurber

Anger, Fear, Forward

It is better to know some of the questions than all of the answers.
James Thurber

Questions, Answers

Well, if I called the wrong number, why did you answer the phone?
James Thurber

Funny, Why, Wrong

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

Few, Heaven, Known

I think that maybe if women and children were in charge we would get somewhere.
James Thurber

Women, Children, Maybe

I used to wake up at 4 A.M. and start sneezing, sometimes for five hours. I tried to find out what sort of allergy I had but finally came to the conclusion that it must be an allergy to consciousness.
James Thurber

Find, Sometimes, Start

All men should strive to learn before they die, what they are running from, and to, and why.
James Thurber

Men, Die, Before

The animals that depend on instinct have an inherent knowledge of the laws of economics and of how to apply them; Man, with his powers of reason, has reduced economics to the level of a farce which is at once funnier and more tragic than Tobacco Road.
James Thurber

Knowledge, Reason, Once

But what is all this fear of and opposition to Oblivion? What is the matter with the soft Darkness, the Dreamless Sleep?
James Thurber

Fear, Sleep, Matter

Sixty minutes of thinking of any kind is bound to lead to confusion and unhappiness.
James Thurber

Thinking, Confusion, Lead

Women are wiser than men because they know less and understand more.
James Thurber

Women, Men, Understand

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

Humor, Greatest, Serious

Progress was all right. Only it went on too long.
James Thurber

Funny, Long, Progress

It is better to have loafed and lost, than never to have loafed at all.
James Thurber

The most dangerous food is wedding cake.
James Thurber

Food, Wedding, Dangerous

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

Great, End, Himself

The wit makes fun of other persons; the satirist makes fun of the world; the humorist makes fun of himself, but in so doing, he identifies himself with people - that is, people everywhere, not for the purpose of taking them apart, but simply revealing their true nature.
James Thurber

Nature, Fun, True

A word to the wise is not sufficient if it doesn't make sense.
James Thurber

Wise, Sense, Word

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

One martini is all right. Two are too many, and three are not enough.
James Thurber

Two, Enough, Three

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

Between, Sure, Anybody

The appreciative smile, the chuckle, the soundless mirth, so important to the success of comedy, cannot be understood unless one sits among the audience and feels the warmth created by the quality of laughter that the audience takes home with it.
James Thurber

Success, Home, Smile

There are two kinds of light - the glow that illuminates, and the glare that obscures.
James Thurber

Two, Light, Kinds

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Biography

Nationality: American

Born: December 8, 1894

Died: November 2, 1961

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Cite this Page: Citation

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