James Thurber quotes - page 4

All right, have it your way - you heard a seal bark. (James Thurber)
Remember laughter. You'll need it even in the blessed isles of Ever After. View quote
James Thurber
You are all a lost generation," Gertrude Stein said to Hemingway. We weren't lost. We knew where we were, all right, but we wouldn't go home. Ours was the generation that stayed up all night. View quote
James Thurber
Once upon a sunny morning a man who sat in a breakfast nook looked up from his scrambled eggs to see a white unicorn with a golden horn quietly cropping the roses in the garden. The man went up to the bedroom where his wife was still asleep and woke her. "There's a unicorn in the garden," he said. "Eating roses." She opened one unfriendly eye and looked at him. "The unicorn is a mythical beast," she said, and turned her back on him. The man walked slowly downstairs and out into the garden. The unicorn was still there; he was now browsing among the tulips. View quote
James Thurber
She wasn't much to look at but she was something to think about. View quote
James Thurber
Human Dignity has gleamed only now and then and here and there, in lonely splendor, throughout the ages, a hope of the better men, never an achievement of the majority. View quote
James Thurber
It had only one fault. It was kind of lousy. View quote
James Thurber
The wit makes fun of other persons; the satirist makes fun of the world; the humorist makes fun of himself. View quote
James Thurber
Time is for dragonflies and angels. The former live too little and the latter live too long. View quote
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. View quote
James Thurber
These are the days of bootleg love. (James Thurber)
Who are you?" the minstrel asked. "I am the Golux," said the Golux, proudly, "the only Golux in the world, and not a mere Device. View quote
James Thurber
Precision of communication is important, more important than ever, in our era of hair trigger balances, when a false or misunderstood word may create as much disaster as a sudden thoughtless act. View quote
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. View quote
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. View quote
James Thurber
I am not a dog lover. A dog lover to me means a dog that is in love with another dog. View quote
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. View quote
James Thurber
It is true, I confess, that if a male character of my invention started across the stage to disrobe a virgin criminally (ah, euphemism to end euphemisms!), he would probably catch his foot in the piano stool and end up playing "Button Up Your Overcoat" on the black keys. View quote
James Thurber
Old age is the most unexpected of all the things that can happen to a man. View quote
James Thurber
Man is flying too fast for a world that is round. Soon he will catch up with himself in a great rear end collision. View quote
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)
Laughter need not be cut out of anything, since it improves everything. View quote
James Thurber
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. View quote
James Thurber
Last night I dreamed of a small consolation enjoyed only by the blind: Nobody knows the trouble I've not seen! View quote
James Thurber
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. View quote
James Thurber