James Thurber: Thing

James Thurber was American cartoonist, author, journalist, playwright. Explore interesting quotes on thing.
James Thurber: 180 quotes8 likes

“Beautiful things don't ask for attention.”

James Thurber book The Secret Life of Walter Mitty

Source: The Secret Life of Walter Mitty

“Walter Mitty: To see the world, things dangerous to come to, to see behind walls, draw closer, to find each other, and to feel. That is the purpose of life.”

James Thurber

“I can feel a thing I cannot touch and touch a thing I cannot feel. The first is sad and sorry, the second is your heart.”

James Thurber book The 13 Clocks

Source: The 13 Clocks

“Things have dropped from me. I have outlived certain desires; I have lost friends, some by death… others through sheer inability to cross the street.”

James Thurber

The Waves (1931)

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

James Thurber

"The Crow and the Scarecrow", The New Yorker (date unknown); Further Fables for Our Time (1956). This is derived from Oscar Wilde's statement "All men kill the thing they love..."
From Fables for Our Time and Further Fables for Our Time

“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.”

James Thurber

“The Book-End,” Columbus Dispatch (1923) Collecting Himself (1989).
From other writings

“When all things are equal, translucence in writing is more effective than transparency, just as glow is more revealing than glare.”

James Thurber

Memo to The New Yorker (1959); reprinted in New York Times Book Review (4 December 1988)
Letters and interviews

“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.”

James Thurber

Quoted in New York Times (21 February 1960).
Letters and interviews