James Thurber Quotes

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

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

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

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

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

I hate women because they always know where things are.

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

Humor is emotional chaos remembered in tranquility.

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

The most dangerous food is wedding cake.

The unicorn is a mythical beast.

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.

Art – the one achievement of man which has made the long trip up from all fours seem well advised

A false or misunderstood word may create as much disaster as a sudden thoughtless act.

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

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.

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.

Two is company, four is a party, three is a crowd. One is a wanderer.

I am not a cat man, but a dog man, and all felines can tell this at a glance - a sharp, vindictive glance.

If I have any beliefs about immortality, it is that certain dogs I have known will go to heaven, and very, very few persons.

There is no exception to the rule that every rule has an exception.

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

It's a naive domestic Burgundy without any breeding, but I think you'll be amused by its presumption.

A burden in the bush is worth two on your hands.

Love is what you've been through with somebody.

The act of writing is either something the writer dreads or actually likes, and I actually like it. Even re-writing's fun. You're getting somewhere, whether it seems to move or not.

The things we laugh at are awful while they are going on, but get funny when we look back. And other people laugh because they've been through it too. The closest thing to humor is tragedy.

You can fool too many of the people too much of the time.

Beautiful things don't ask for attention.

The past is an old armchair in the attic, the present an ominous ticking sound, and the future is anybody's guess.

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

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

I myself have known some profoundly thoughtful dogs.

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

A lady of 47 who has been married 27 years and has six children knows what love really is and once described it for me like this: 'Love is what you've been through with somebody'.

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.

Boys are beyond the range of anybody's sure understanding, at least when they are between the ages of 18 months and 90 years.

The wit makes fun of other persons; the satirist makes fun of the world; the humorist makes fun of himself.

Humor and pathos, tears and laughter are, in the highest expression of human character and achievement, inseparable.

Writers of comedy have outlook, whereas writers of tragedy have, according to them, insight.

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

I don't believe the writer should know too much where he's going. If he does, he runs into old man blueprint—old man propaganda.

A pinch of probability is worth a pound of perhaps.

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

Reason is 6/7 of treason.

Don't count your boobies until they are hatched.

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

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

He who hesitates is sometimes saved.

Americans want to go to heaven without dying.