James Thurber quotes - page 2

James Thurber was an American writer, cartoonist, and humorist renowned for his contributions to The New Yorker magazine. His witty stories and illustrations captured the absurdities of everyday life. He became one of the most celebrated humorists of the 20th century. Here are 138 of his quotes:

The most dangerous food is wedding cake. (James Thurber)

A pinch of probability is worth a pound of perhaps.

James Thurber

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

James Thurber

Why do you have to be a nonconformist like everybody else?

James Thurber

Don't get it right, just get it written.

James Thurber

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

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

James Thurber

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

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

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

With sixty staring me in the face, I have developed inflammation of the sentence structure and definite hardening of the paragraphs. (James Thurber)

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

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

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

I'm 65 and I guess that puts me in with the geriatrics. But if there were fifteen months in every year, I'd only be 48. That's the trouble with us. We number everything. Take women, for example. I think they deserve to have more than twelve years between the ages of 28 and 40.

James Thurber

Man has gone long enough, or even too long, without being man enough to face the simple truth that the trouble with man is man.

James Thurber

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

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

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

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

James Thurber

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)

Things have dropped from me. I have outlived certain desires; I have lost friends, some by death... others through sheer inability to cross the street.

James Thurber

We all have faults, and mine is being wicked.

James Thurber

But those rare souls whose spirit gets magically into the hearts of men, leave behind them something more real and warmly personal than bodily presence, an ineffable and eternal thing. It is everlasting life touching us as something more than a vague, recondite concept. The sound of a great name dies like an echo the splendor of fame fades into nothing but the grace of a fine spirit pervades the places through which it has passed, like the haunting loveliness of mignonette.

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

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James Thurber

James Thurber - Image

Occupation: American Cartoonist
Born: December 8, 1894
Died: November 2, 1961
Quotes count: 138
Wikipedia: James Thurber

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