All human beings should try to learn before they die what they are running from, and to, and why.
James Thurber
He knows all about art, but he doesn't know what he likes.
James Thurber
He who hesitates is sometimes saved.
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.
James Thurber
I hate women because they always know where things are.
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.
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
It had only one fault. It was kind of lousy.
James Thurber
It is better to know some of the questions than all of the answers.
James Thurber
Nowadays men lead lives of noisy desperation.
James Thurber
The only rules comedy can tolerate are those of taste, and the only limitations those of libel.
James Thurber
The paths of glory at least lead to the grave, but the paths of duty may not get you any where.
James Thurber
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.
James Thurber
There are two kinds of light--the glow that illuminates, and the glare that obscures.
James Thurber
Why do you have to be a nonconformist like everybody else?
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, "Carpe Noctem, If You Can", in "Credos and Curios" (1962)
The wit makes fun of other persons; the satirist makes fun of the world; the humorist makes fun of himself.
James Thurber, in Edward R. Murrow television interview
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, My Life and Hard Times (1933)
Well, if I called the wrong number, why did you answer the phone?
James Thurber, New Yorker cartoon caption, June 5, 1937
You might as well fall flat on your face as lean over too far backward.
James Thurber, New Yorker, Apr. 29, 1939 "The Bear Who Let It Alone"
You can fool too many of the people too much of the time.
James Thurber, New Yorker, Apr. 29, 1939 "The Owl who was God"
Early to rise and early to bed makes a male healthy and wealthy and dead.
James Thurber, New Yorker, Feb. 18, 1939 "The Shrike and the Chipmunks"
There is no safety in numbers, or in anything else.
James Thurber, New Yorker, Feb. 4, 1939, "The Fairly Intelligent Fly"
