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Humor and pathos, tears and laughter are, in the highest expression of human character and achievement, inseparable.

— James Thurber

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More quotes by James Thurber

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 James Thurber quotes →

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Whoever undertakes to set himself up as a judge of Truth and Knowledge is shipwrecked by the laughter of the gods.

Albert Einstein Essay to Leo Baeck (1953)

Man is the only animal that laughs and weeps; for he is the only animal that is struck with the difference between what things are, and what they ought to be.

William Hazlitt Lectures on the English Comic Writers (1819)

Laughter is the closest thing to the grace of God.

Karl Barth The Harper Book of Quotations (1993)

Care to our coffin adds a nail, no doubt,
And every grin so merry draws one out.

John Wolcot

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: James Thurber (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.