James Thurber Quotes

121 Sourced Quotes

Speed is scarcely the noblest virtue of graphic composition, but it has its curious rewards. There is a sense of getting somewhere fast, which satisfies a native American urge.

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
The only rules comedy can tolerate are those of taste, and the only limitations those of libel.

James Thurber
Sophistication might be described as the ability to cope gracefully with a situation involving the presence of a formidable menace to one's poise and prestige (such as the butler, or the man under the bed — but never the husband).

James Thurber
Comedy has to be done en clair. You can't blunt the edge of wit or the point of satire with obscurity. Try to imagine a famous witty saying that is not immediately clear.

James Thurber
A drawing is always dragged down to the level of its caption.

James Thurber
Every time is a time for comedy in a world of tension that would languish without it. But I cannot confine myself to lightness in a period of human life that demands light... We all know that, as the old adage has it, "It is later than you think."..., but I also say occasionally: "It is lighter than you think." In this light let's not look back in anger, or forward in fear, but around in awareness.

James Thurber
All men kill the thing they hate, too, unless, of course, it kills them first.

James Thurber
Columbus is a town in which almost anything is likely to happen and in which almost everything has.

James Thurber
A pinch of probability is worth a pound of perhaps.

James Thurber
"To hell with the handkerchief," said Walter Mitty scornfully. He took one last drag on his cigarette and snapped it away. Then, with that faint, fleeting smile playing about his lips, he faced the firing squad; erect and motionless, proud and disdainful, Walter Mitty the Undefeated, inscrutable to the last.

James Thurber
I consider that that 'that' that worries us so much should be forgotten. Rats desert a sinking ship. Thats infest a sinking magazine.

James Thurber
Art—the one achievement of Man which has made the long trip up from all fours seem well advised.

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

James Thurber
The devoted writer of humor must continue to try to come as close to the truth as he can, even if he gets burned in the process. But I don't think he will get too badly burned. His faith in the good will, the soundness, and the sense of humor of his countrymen will always serve as his asbestos curtain.

James Thurber
In order to be eligible to play it was necessary for him to keep up in his studies, a very difficult matter, for while he was not dumber than an ox he was not any smarter.

James Thurber
Time is for dragonflies and angels. The former live too little and the latter live too long.

James Thurber
The laughter of man is more terrible than his tears, and takes more forms — hollow, heartless, mirthless, maniacal.

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

James Thurber
If I have sometimes seemed to make fun of Woman, I assure you it has only been for the purpose of egging her on.

James Thurber
"I make mistakes, but I am on the side of Good," the Golux said, "by accident and happen chance. I had high hopes of being Evil when I was two, but in my youth I came upon a firefly burning in a spider's web. I saved the victim's life." "The firefly's ?" said the minstrel. "The spider's. The blinking arsonist had set the web on fire."

James Thurber
She wasn't much to look at but she was something to think about.

James Thurber
I love the idea of there being two sexes, don't you?

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

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
My drawings have been described as pre-intentionalist, meaning that they were finished before the ideas for them had occurred to me. I shall not argue the point.

James Thurber
She came naturally by her confused and groundless fears, for her own mother lived the latter years of her life in the horrible suspicion that electricity was dripping invisibly all over the house.

James Thurber
In Martinique, when the whistle blew for the tourists to get back on the ship, I had a quick, wild, and lovely moment when I decided I wouldn't get back on the ship. I did, though. And I found that somebody had stolen the pants to my dinner jacket.

James Thurber
I am not a dog lover. A dog lover to me means a dog that is in love with another dog.

James Thurber