James Thurber (1894 – 1961)
American humorist and cartoonist.
If a playwright tried to see eye to eye with everybody, he would get the worst case of strabismus since Hannibal lost an eye trying to count his nineteen elephants during a snowstorm while crossing the Alps.
Le coeur a ses raisons, Mrs. Bence, que la raison ne connait pas.
We all know that the theater and every play that comes to Broadway have within themselves, like the human being, the seed of self-destruction and the certainty of death. The thing is to see how long the theater, the play, and the human being can last in spite of themselves.
There is no safety in numbers, or in anything else.
Don't count your boobies until they are hatched.
It is better to have loafed and lost, than never to have loafed at all.
The laughter of man is more terrible than his tears, and takes more forms — hollow, heartless, mirthless, maniacal.
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.
It is better to ask some of the questions than to know all the answers.
A burden in the bush is worth two on your hands.
But those rare souls whose spirit gets magically into the hearts of men, leave behind them something more real and warmly personal than bodily presence, an ineffable and eternal thing. It is everlasting life touching us as something more than a vague, recondite concept. The sound of a great name dies like an echo; the splendor of fame fades into nothing; but the grace of a fine spirit pervades the places through which it has passed, like the haunting loveliness of mignonette.
I always begin at the left with the opening word of the sentence and read toward the right and I recommend this method.
The wit makes fun of other persons; the satirist makes fun of the world; the humorist makes fun of himself, but in so doing, he identifies himself with people — that is, people everywhere, not for the purpose of taking them apart, but simply revealing their true nature.
Discussion in America means dissent.
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.
She came naturally by her confused and groundless fears, for her own mother lived the latter years of her life in the horrible suspicion that electricity was dripping invisibly all over the house.
I am not a dog lover. A dog lover to me means a dog that is in love with another dog.
From now on, I think it is safe to predict, neither the Democratic nor the Republican Party will ever nominate for President a candidate without good looks, stage presence, theatrical delivery, and a sense of timing.
I love the idea of there being two sexes, don't you?
You might as well fall flat on your face as lean over too far backward.