James Thurber quotes - page 5

Unless artists can remember what it was to be a little boy, they are only half complete as artist and as man. (James Thurber)
The sanity of the average banquet speaker lasts about two and a half months; at the end of that time he begins to mutter to himself, and calls out in his sleep. View quote
James Thurber
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. View quote
James Thurber
He picked out this sentence in a New Yorker casual of mine: "After dinner, the men moved into the living room," and he wanted to know why I, or the editors, had put in the comma. I could explain that one all night. I wrote back that this particular comma was Ross's way of giving the men time to push back their chairs and stand up. View quote
James Thurber
For one thing, she pronounced flowers 'flars' and I couldn't let it slide. View quote
James Thurber
The paths of glory at least lead to the grave, but the paths of duty may not get you anywhere. View quote
James Thurber
Sean O'Connell: Sometimes I don't. If I like a moment, for me, personally, I don't like to have the distraction of the camera. I just want to stay in it. View quote
James Thurber
The trouble with the lost generation is that it didn't get lost enough. View quote
James Thurber
Americans want to go to heaven without dying. View quote
James Thurber
I loathe the expression "What makes him tick." It is the American mind, looking for simple and singular solution, that uses the foolish expression. A person not only ticks, he also chimes and strikes the hour, falls and breaks and has to be put together again, and sometimes stops like an electric clock in a thunderstorm. View quote
James Thurber
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)
You mere device," he gnarled. "You platitude! Your Gollux ex machina! View quote
James Thurber
Walter Mitty: To see the world, things dangerous to come to, to see behind walls, draw closer, to find each other, and to feel. That is the purpose of life. View quote
James Thurber
The heart has its reasons, which reason does not know. View quote
James Thurber
Comedy has to be done en clair. View quote
James Thurber
Love is the strange bewilderment that overtakes one person on account of another person. View quote
James Thurber
Humor does not include sarcasm, invalid irony, sardonicism, innuendo, or any other form of cruelty. When these things are raised to a high point they can become wit, but unlike the French and the English, we have not been much good at wit since the days of Benjamin Franklin. View quote
James Thurber
Writers of comedy have outlook, whereas writers of tragedy have, according to them, insight. View quote
James Thurber
Mutual suspicions of mental inadequacy are common during the first year of any marriage. View quote
James Thurber
Let the meek inherit the earth - they have it coming to them. View quote
James Thurber
Every man is occasionally visited by the suspicion that the planet on which he is riding is not really going anywhere that the Force which controls its measured eccentricities hasn't got anything special in mind. If he broods on this somber theme long enough he gets the doleful idea that the laughing children on a merry-go-round or the thin, fine hands of a lady's watch are revolving more purposely than he is. (James Thurber)
In an extensive reading of recent books by psychologists, psychoanalysts, psychiatrists, and inspirationalists, I have discovered that they all suffer from one or more of these expression-complexes italicizing, capitalizing, exclamation-pointing, multiple-interrogating, and itemizing. These are all forms of what the psychos themselves would call, if they faced their condition frankly, Rhetorical-Over-Compensation. View quote
James Thurber
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. View quote
James Thurber
If you wonder which is the stronger sex, watch which one twists the other around her little finger. View quote
James Thurber
A husband should not insult his wife publicly, at parties. He should insult her in the privacy of the home. View quote
James Thurber