Quotes by James Thurber

About James Thurber:

James Grover Thurber was an American cartoonist, author, journalist, playwright, and celebrated wit. Thurber was best known for his cartoons and short stories, published mainly in The New Yorker magazine and collected in his numerous books. One of the most popular humorists of his time, Thurber celebrated the comic frustrations and eccentricities of ordinary people. In collaboration with his college friend, Elliott Nugent, he wrote the Broadway comedy, The Male Animal, later adapted into a film, which starred Henry Fonda and Olivia de Havilland.
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

Old age is the most unexpected of all the things that can happen to a man.

James Thurber

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

James Thurber

You mere device," he gnarled. "You platitude! Your Gollux ex machina!

James Thurber

I make mistakes, but I am on the side of Good," the Golux said, "by accident and happenchance. I had high hopes of being Evil when I was two, but in my youth I came upon a firefly burning in a spider's web. I saved the victim's life." "The firefly's ...

James Thurber

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

James Thurber

You have made the moon," The Jester said. "That is the moon.

James Thurber

Books can be burned,” croaked Black. “They have a way of rising from the ashes,” said Andreus.

James Thurber

Taking a single letter from the alphaber," he said, "should make life simpler." "I don't see why. Take the F from life and you have lie. It's adding a letter to simple that makes it simpler. Taking a letter from hoarder makes it harder.

James Thurber

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.

James Thurber

She has a memory of trees and fields and nothing more.

James Thurber

The most dangerous food is wedding cake.

James Thurber

The appreciative smile, the chuckle, the soundless mirth, so important to the success of comedy, cannot be understood unless one sits among the audience and feels the warmth created by the quality of laughter that the audience takes home with it.

James Thurber

Humor is emotional chaos remembered in tranquility.

James Thurber

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.

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.

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.

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

Comedy has to be done en clair. You can't blunt the edge of wit or the point of satire with obscurity. Try to imagine a famous witty saying that is not immediately clear.

James Thurber

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

James Thurber

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

James Thurber

Author Bio

  • NameJames Thurber
  • DescriptionAmerican cartoonist, author, journalist, playwright
  • BornDecember 18, 1894
  • DiedNovember 2, 1961
  • CountryUnited States Of America
  • ProfessionJournalist; Writer; Novelist
  • WorksMy World And Welcome To It