“The only rules comedy can tolerate are those of taste, and the only limitations those of libel.”

—  James Thurber

"The Duchess and the Bugs", 'Lanterns & Lances (1961). The piece was "a response" to an award Thurber received from the Ohioana Library Association in 1953.
From Lanterns and Lances‎

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "The only rules comedy can tolerate are those of taste, and the only limitations those of libel." by James Thurber?
James Thurber photo
James Thurber90
American cartoonist, author, journalist, playwright 1894–1961

Related quotes

Frank Herbert photo

“To know a thing well, know it's limits; Only when pushed beyond it's tolerance will it's true nature be seen.
-The Amtal Rule”

Frank Herbert book Children of Dune

Source: Children of Dune

Rod Serling photo

“Imagination… its limits are only those of the mind itself.”

Rod Serling (1924–1975) American screenwriter

Jane Roberts photo

“As a rule projection in some areas can only be achieved by those who are living their last earthly cycle.”

Jane Roberts (1929–1984) American Writer

Session 273, Page 273
The Early Sessions: Sessions 1-42, 1997, The Early Sessions: Book 6

Jacque Fresco photo

“The only limitations are those which we impose upon ourselves.”

Jacque Fresco (1916–2017) American futurist and self-described social engineer

George Müller photo

“Now, spiritual rule can only be continued over those who yield willing subjection: an unwilling submission on the part of those who are in the place "of the ruled," we deem no true subjection at all.”

George Müller (1805–1898) German-English clergyman

A Narrative of Some of the Lord's Dealings with George Müller Written by Himself, Second Part.
Second Part of Narrative

Ronald Reagan photo

“Our government needs the church, because only those humble enough to admit they're sinners can bring democracy the tolerance it requires to survive”

Ronald Reagan (1911–2004) American politician, 40th president of the United States (in office from 1981 to 1989)

Napoleon Hill photo

“Our only limitations are those we set up in our own minds”

Napoleon Hill (1883–1970) American author

Variant: The only limitation is that which one sets up in one's own mind.
Source: Think and Grow Rich: The Landmark Bestseller - Now Revised and Updated for the 21st Century

Alfred, Lord Tennyson photo

“You that woo the Voices—tell them "Old Experience is a fool";
Teach your flattered kings that only those who can not read can rule.”

Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809–1892) British poet laureate

Source: Locksley Hall Sixty Years After (1886), Line 131

John Stuart Mill photo

“.. Whenever it ceases to be true that mankind, as a rule, prefer themselves to others, and those nearest to them to those more remote, from that moment Communism is not only practicable, but the only defensible form of society…”

John Stuart Mill (1806–1873) British philosopher and political economist

On Representative Government (1861)

Horace Walpole photo

“Life is a comedy to those who think and a tragedy for those who feel.”

Horace Walpole (1717–1797) English art historian, man of letters, antiquarian and Whig politician

Letter to Anne, Countess of Ossory, (16 August 1776)
A favourite saying of Walpole's, it is repeated in other of his letters, and might be derived from a similar statement attributed to Jean de La Bruyère, though unsourced: "Life is a tragedy for those who feel, and a comedy for those who think". An earlier form occurs in another published letter:
I have often said, and oftener think, that this world is a comedy to those that think, a tragedy to those that feel — a solution of why Democritus laughed and Heraclitus wept.
Letter to Sir Horace Mann (31 December 1769)
Variant: The world is a comedy to those that think; a tragedy to those that feel.

Related topics