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James Thurber Quote

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James Thurber

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James Thurber

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

- James Thurber

Source/Notes: The New Yorker (2 August 1930) - From other writings

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James Thurber

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

- James Thurber

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James Thurber

“All men kill the thing they hate, too, unless, of course, it kills them first.”

- James Thurber

Source/Notes: From Fables for Our Time and Further Fables for Our Time

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James Thurber

“All men should strive to learn before they die, what they are running from, and to, and why.”

- James Thurber

Source/Notes: The Shore and the Sea, Further Fables for Our Time (first publication, 1956) - From Fables for Our Time and Further Fables for Our Time

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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

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James Thurber

“But what is all this fear of and opposition to Oblivion? What is the matter with the soft Darkness, the Dreamless Sleep?”

- James Thurber

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James Thurber

“Comedy has to be done en clair. You can't blunt the edge of wit or the point of satire with obscurity. Try to imagine a famous witty saying that is not immediately clear.”

- James Thurber

Source/Notes: Letter, March 11, 1954, to Malcolm Cowley. Collecting Himself (1989) - Letters and interviews

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James Thurber

“Discussion in America means dissent.”

- James Thurber

Source/Notes: The Duchess and the Bugs, 'Lanterns & Lances (1961). - From other writings

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James Thurber

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

- James Thurber

Source/Notes: From Fables for Our Time and Further Fables for Our Time

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James Thurber

“Early to rise and early to bed makes a man healthy, wealthy, and dead.”

- James Thurber

Source/Notes: Sometimes quoted as "... makes a male healthy..." - Fables for Our Times (1940), "The Shrike and the Chipmunks". Derived from Benjamin Franklin's quote: izquotes.com/quote/283012

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James Thurber

“He who hesitates is sometimes saved.”

- James Thurber

Source/Notes: From Fables for Our Time and Further Fables for Our Time

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James Thurber

“Humor is a serious thing. I like to think of it as one of our greatest earliest natural resources, which must be preserved at all cost.”

- James Thurber

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James Thurber

“Humor is emotional chaos remembered in tranquility.”

- James Thurber

Source/Notes: Quoted in New York Post (29 February 1960) - Letters and interviews

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James Thurber

“I am not a cat man, but a dog man, and all felines can tell this at a glance - a sharp, vindictive glance.”

- James Thurber

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