“A word to the wise is not sufficient if it doesn't make any sense.”
"The Weaver and the Worm", The New Yorker ( 11 August 1956 http://www.newyorker.com/archive/1956/08/11/1956_08_11_019_TNY_CARDS_000252308); Further Fables for Our Time (1956)
From Fables for Our Time and Further Fables for Our Time
“It is better to have loafed and lost, than never to have loafed at all.”
"The Courtship of Arthur and Al", The New Yorker (26 August 1939); Fables for Our Time & Famous Poems Illustrated (1940). Parody of Alfred Lord Tennyson's "Better to have loved and lost/than never to have loved at all."
From Fables for Our Time and Further Fables for Our Time
"The Duchess and the Bugs", 'Lanterns & Lances (1961).
From Lanterns and Lances
“Discussion in America means dissent.”
"The Duchess and the Bugs", 'Lanterns & Lances (1961).
From Lanterns and Lances
Quoted in New York Times (21 February 1960).
Letters and interviews
Television interview with Edward R. Murrow on TV show Small World, CBS-TV (25 March 1959); transcript published in New York Post
Letters and interviews
"The Unicorn in the Garden", The New Yorker (31 October 1939); Fables for Our Time & Famous Poems Illustrated (1940). This is a fable where a man sees a Unicorn in his garden, and his wife reports the matter to have him taken away, to the "booby-hatch". Online text with illustration by Thurber http://english.glendale.cc.ca.us/unicorn1.html
From Fables for Our Time and Further Fables for Our Time
“A drawing is always dragged down to the level of its caption.”
The New Yorker (2 August 1930)
From other writings
My Life and Hard Times (1933) page 33, Harper & Row, New York.
From other writings
Preface to A Thurber Garland (1955)
From other writings
“He knows all about art, but he doesn't know what he likes.”
Cartoon caption, The New Yorker (4 November 1939). Parody of "I don't know much about art, but I know what I like."
"Word Dance — Part One", A Thurber Carnival (1960)
Cartoon captions
Variant: He knew all about art, but he didn't know what you like.
“Love is blind, but desire just doesn't give a good goddam.”
sic
"The Clothes Moth and the Luna Moth", The New Yorker (date unknown); Further Fables for Our Time (1956)
From Fables for Our Time and Further Fables for Our Time
Letter to Henry Brandon after an interview with him, explaining his opposition to interviews; quoted by Brandon in As We Are (1961)
Letters and interviews
“He who hesitates is sometimes saved.”
"The Glass in the Field", The New Yorker (31 October 1939); Fables for Our Time & Famous Poems Illustrated (1940). This is the moral of a fable in which several birds reject a Goldfinch's report that he ran into "crystallized air" while flying across a field, where workmen had left a large plate of glass upright. The Swallow rejects the offer to come along with others and prove the Goldfinch wrong.
From Fables for Our Time and Further Fables for Our Time
“I am not a dog lover. A dog lover to me means a dog that is in love with another dog.”
"I Like Dogs", For Men (April 1939); reprinted in People Have More Fun Than Anybody (1994); slightly paraphrased in "And So to Medve", Thurber's Dogs (1955)
From other writings
“I love the idea of there being two sexes, don't you?”
Cartoon caption, The New Yorker (22 April 1939); "A Miscellany", Alarms and Diversions (1957)
Cartoon captions
New York Times Magazine (7 December 1958).
Letters and interviews
"An Introduction", The Fireside Book of Dog Stories (Simon and Schuster, 1943); reprinted in Thurber's Dogs (1955)
From other writings
“The pounding of the cylinders increased: ta-pocketa-pocketa-pocketa-pocketa-pocketa.”
The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (1942)
From other fiction
The New Yorker (2 August 1930), discussing cartooning
From other writings