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

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

James Thurber

With sixty staring me in the face, I have developed inflammation of the sentence structure and definite hardening of the paragraphs.

James Thurber

You might as well fall flat on your face as lean over too far backward.

James Thurber

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.

James Thurber

We all have faults, and mine is being wicked.

James Thurber

He who hesitates is sometimes saved.

James Thurber

A drawing is always dragged down to the level of its caption.

James Thurber

A word to the wise is not sufficient if it doesn't make sense.

James Thurber

Don't get it right, just get it written.

James Thurber

Unless artists can remember what it was to be a little boy, they are only half complete as artist and as man.

James Thurber

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

James Thurber

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.

James Thurber

The only rules comedy can tolerate are those of taste, and the only limitations those of libel.

James Thurber

Last night I dreamed of a small consolation enjoyed only by the blind: Nobody knows the trouble I've not seen!

James Thurber

There is no safety in numbers, or in anything else.

James Thurber

Speed is scarcely the noblest virtue of graphic composition, but it has its curious rewards. There is a sense of getting somewhere fast, which satisfies a native American urge.

James Thurber

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

James Thurber

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.

James Thurber

In his grief over the loss of a dog, a little boy stands for the first time on tiptoe, peering into the rueful morrow of manhood. After this most inconsolable of sorrows there is nothing life can do to him that he will not be able somehow to bear.

James Thurber

All human beings should try to learn before they die what they are running from, and to, and why.

James Thurber

At least she's not guilty of integrity, and that's more than I can say of any Bell in four generations except my grandfather and myself.

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