I suppose that even the most pleasurable of imaginable occupations, that of batting baseballs through the windows of the RCA Building, would pall a little as the days ran on.

—James Thurber

pleasure dullness

About James Thurber

Portrait of James Thurber

James Grover Thurber (December 8, 1894 – November 2, 1961) was an American cartoonist, writer, humorist, journalist, and playwright. He was born in Columbus, Ohio, and attended Ohio State University (OSU), leaving in 1918 without graduating. He spent over a year in Paris, working for the US State Department as...

More quotations from James Thurber

Well, if I called the wrong number, why did you answer the phone?

—James Thurber

humor telephone

I used to wake up at 4 A.M. and start sneezing, sometimes for five hours. I tried to find out what sort of allergy I had but finally came to the conclusion that it must be an allergy to consciousness.

—James Thurber

humor consciousness allergy sneezing

I loathe the expression "What makes him tick." It is the American mind, looking for simple and singular solution, that uses the foolish expression. A person not only ticks, he also chimes and strikes the hour, falls and breaks and has to be put together again, and sometimes stops like an electric clock in a thunderstorm.

—James Thurber

You might as well fall flat on your face as lean over too far backward.

—James Thurber

You can fool too many of the people too much of the time.

—James Thurber

More quotations tagged with “dullness”

One should absorb the colour of life, but one should never remember its details. Details are always vulgar.

life memory dullness details

It is the dull man who is always sure, and the sure man who is always dull.

—H. L. Mencken

certainty dullness

Only dull people are brilliant at breakfast.

dullness breakfast brilliance