James Thurber Quotes (137 Quotes)


    DeLay knows that reciprocity is the strongest norm in Washington. The clients know they have a relationship and that they have to come up with the money. It's very clear to them, and they do it.

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

    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.


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


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

    When all things are equal, translucence in writing is more effective than transparency, just as glow is more revealing than glare.

    Karl Rove is a great guy in terms of developing issues for a campaign, but he's not done well on advocating policy in a governance setting. The job is diminished, but he probably doesn't mind that. He's a racehorse in a campaign.

    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.

    Next to reasoning, the greatest handicap to the optimum development of Man lies in the fact that this planet is just barely habitable. Its minimum temperatures are too low, and its maximum temperatures too high. Its day is not long enough, and its night is too long. The disposition of its water and earth is distinctly unfortunate (the existence of the Mediterranean Sea in the place where we find it is perhaps the unhappiest accident in the whole firmament). These factors encourage depression, fear, war, and lack of vitality. They describe a planet, which is by no means perfectly devised for the nurturing or for the perpetuation of a higher intelligence.

    Love is blind, but desire just doesn't give a good goddamn

    No man who has wrestled with a self-adjusting card table can ever be quite the man he once was.

    Laughter need not be cut out of anything, since it improves everything.

    A pinch of probability is worth a pound of perhaps.

    Early to rise and early to bed. Makes a male healthy, wealthy and dead.

    A husband should not insult his wife publicly, at parties. He should insult her in the privacy of the home.

    He was always leaning forward, pushing something invisible ahead of him.

    We all know that the theater and every play that comes to Broadway have within themselves, like the human being, the seed of self-destruction and the certainty of death. The thing is to see how long the theater, the play, and the human being can last in spite of themselves.


    The wit makes fun of other persons; the satirist makes fun of the world; the humorist makes fun of himself, but in so doing, he identifies himself with people - that is, people everywhere, not for the purpose of taking them apart, but simply revealing their true nature.

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

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

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

    The news of continuing deaths cannot be overcome by speeches.


    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).

    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.

    Hundreds of hysterical persons must confuse these phenomena with messages from the beyond and take their glory to the bishop rather than the eye doctor.

    My opposition to Interviews lies in the fact that offhand answers have little value or grace of expression, and that such oral give and take helps to perpetuate the decline of the English language.

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

    I always begin at the left with the opening word of the sentence and read toward the right and I recommend this method.

    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.

    Love is what you've been through with somebody.

    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.

    It is better to have loafed and lost, than never to have loafed at all.

    Humor is emotional chaos remembered in tranquility.

    Politically, war trumps the economy. But the president has very few things that he can brag about right now. He has to point out that the economy is doing very well. It would be foolish not to.

    All right, have it your way - you heard a seal bark.

    Get it right or let it alone. The conclusion you jump to may be your own.

    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.

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

    Some American writers who have known each other for years have never met in the daytime or when both were sober.

    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.

    Let us not look back in anger or forward in fear, but around in awareness.

    Humor is a serious thing. I like to think of it as one of our greatest earliest natural resources, which must be preserved at all cost.

    The grand jury investigation has the possibility of really shining a light on the credibility of the administration, how officials tried to undermine those who were criticizing them and how they then covered up that attempt.

    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.

    Love is the strange bewilderment that overtakes one person on account of another person.

    Whether it's a crisis or not depends on how long these high prices are sustained.

    Politically, this is very serious for the president. If the base of his party has lost faith, that could spell trouble for his policy agenda and for the party generally.


    More James Thurber Quotations (Based on Topics)


    Man - Sense & Perception - People - Fear - Love - Astronomy & Cosmology - Reasoning - Parties - Comedy - Dogs - Success - World - Jokes & Humor - Anger - Facts - Woman - War & Peace - Contemplation - Art - View All James Thurber Quotations

    Related Authors


    Jerry Seinfeld - Ellen DeGeneres - Billy Crystal - Rob Schneider - Lucille Ball - Jimmy Durante - Dan Aykroyd - Bob Hope - Bill Cosby - Arsenio Hall


Page 1 of 3 1 2 3

Authors (by First Name)

A - B - C - D - E - F - G - H - I - J - K - L - M
N - O - P - Q - R - S - T - U - V - W - X - Y - Z

Other Inspiring Sections