James Thurber Quotes
1894–1961 United States
James Grover Thurber (8 December 1894 – 2 November 1961) was an American humorist and cartoonist.
- United States
- Cartoonists
- Editors
- Essayists
- Humorists
Also known as: Thurber, Thurber, James
Random James Thurber quote
60 quotes
It is better to ask some of the questions than to know all the answers.
There is no safety in numbers, or in anything else.
There are two kinds of light — the glow that illumines, and the glare that obscures.
Lanterns and Lances (1961)
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.
You can fool too many of the people too much of the time.
All men should strive to learn before they die what they are running from, and to, and why.
Now I am not a cat man, but a dog man, and all felines can tell this at a glance — a sharp, vindictive glance.
Humor and pathos, tears and laughter are, in the highest expression of human character and achievement, inseparable.
All men kill the thing they hate, too, unless, of course, it kills them first.
It is better to have loafed and lost, than never to have loafed at all.
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.
A drawing is always dragged down to the level of its caption.
I love the idea of there being two sexes, don't you?
Nowadays most men lead lives of noisy desperation.
It's a naïve domestic Burgundy without any breeding, but I think you'll be amused by its presumption.
Cartoon caption (1944)
The only rules comedy can tolerate are those of taste, and the only limitations those of libel.
The pounding of the cylinders increased: ta-pocketa-pocketa-pocketa-pocketa-pocketa.
The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (1942)
Early to rise and early to bed makes a male healthy and wealthy and dead.
You might as well fall flat on your face as lean over too far backward.
A word to the wise is not sufficient if it doesn't make any sense.