The dog has got more fun out of Man than Man has got out of the dog, for the clearly demonstrable reason that Man is the more laughable of the two animals. -James Thurber Pet
The past is an old armchair in the attic, the present an ominous ticking sound, and the future is anybody's guess. -James Thurber Future
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. -James Thurber Nature
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 Smile
The nation that complacently and fearfully allows its artists and writers to become suspected rather than respected is no longer regarded as a nation possessed with humor or depth. -James Thurber Humor
But what is all this fear of and opposition to Oblivion? What is the matter with the soft Darkness, the Dreamless Sleep? -James Thurber Fear
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 Humor
