All human beings should try to learn before they die what they are running from, and to, and why. James Thurber More Quotes by James Thurber More Quotes From James Thurber It's a naive domestic Burgundy without any breeding, but I think you'll be amused by its presumption. James Thurber winefoodthinking God bless... God damn. James Thurber god-blessagedeath Discussion in America means dissent. James Thurber comedymeanamerica A peril of the night road is that flecks of dust and streaks of bug blood on the windshield look to me like old admirals in uniform, or crippled apple women, or the front edge of barges, and I whirl out of their way, thus going into ditches and fields and up on front lawns, endangering the life of authentic admirals and apple women who may be out on the roads for a breath of air before retiring. James Thurber applesairnight He had as much fun in the water as any person I have known. You didn't have to throw a stick in the water to get him to go in. Of course, he would bring back a stick to you if you did throw one in. He would even have brought back a piano if you had thrown one in. James Thurber pianodogfun Sanity, soundness, and sincerity, of which gleams and strains can still be found in the human brain under powerful microscopes, flourish only in a culture of clarification, which is now becoming harder and harder to detect with the naked eye. James Thurber powerfuleyebrain Man is troubled by what might be called the Dog Wish, a strange and involved compulsion to be as happy and carefree as a dog James Thurber dogwishmen You are all a lost generation," Gertrude Stein said to Hemingway. We weren't lost. We knew where we were, all right, but we wouldn't go home. Ours was the generation that stayed up all night. James Thurber gertrudehomenight I drew pictures rapidly and with few lines, because I had to write most of the pieces, too, and couldn't monkey long with the drawings. The divine urge was no higher than that. James Thurber drawingwritinglong If I have sometimes seemed to make fun of Woman, I assure you it has only been for the purpose of egging her on. James Thurber womenpurposefun I loathe the expression “What makes him tick.” It is the American mind, looking for simple and singular solutions, 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 simpleexpressionfall At forty my faculties may have closed up like flowers at evening, leaving me unable to write my memoirs with a fitting and discreet inaccuracy, or, having written them, unable to carry them to the publisher. James Thurber leavingflowerwriting If you wonder which is the stronger sex, watch which one twists the other around her little finger. James Thurber twistsstrongersex 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 laughtersuccesshappiness The pounding of the cylinders increased: ta-pocketa-pocketa-pocketa-pocketa-pocketa. James Thurber cylinders The difference between our decadence and the Russians is that while theirs is brutal, ours is apathetic. James Thurber apathycomedydifferences I'm 65 and I guess that puts me in with the geriatrics. But if there were fifteen months in every year, I'd only be 48. That's the trouble with us. We number everything. Take women, for example. I think they deserve to have more than twelve years between the ages of 28 and 40. James Thurber numbersyearsthinking Somebody has said that woman's place is in the wrong. That's fine. What the wrong needs is a woman's presence and a woman's touch. She is far better equipped than men to set it right. James Thurber saidmenneeds I don't remember any blue poodles. James Thurber poodlesblueremember I have the reputation for having read all of Henry James. Which would argue a misspent youth and middle age. James Thurber reputationagearguing
