James Thurber Quotes

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

James Thurber

• Comedy

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Quotes to Explore

• The idea of a news broadcast once was to find someone with information and broadcast it. The idea now is to find someone with ignorance and spread it around.

  

  P. J. O'Rourke
  • Find
  • Ignorance
  • News

• My songs are very personal, which means they are fantastically therapeutic to write, but performing them night after night is emotionally draining.

  

  Laura Mvula
  • Night
  • Write
  • Very

• A great burden was lifted from my shoulders the day I realized that no one owes me anything.

  

  Harry Browne
  • Great
  • Day
  • Burden

• The process of reclaiming the self is one of reconciliation with meaning.

  

  Tariq Ramadan
  • Process
  • Self
  • Meaning

• All the privileged can travel, see different worlds; not everyone can. I think it is important for people to have an interesting locale nearby.

  

  Zaha Hadid
  • People
  • Different
  • Important

• It is right that he too should have his little chronicle, his memories, his reason, and be able to recognize the good in the bad, the bad in the worst, and so grow gently old down all the unchanging days, and die one day like any other day, only shorter.

  

  Samuel Beckett
  • Good
  • Bad
  • Die

• Without the BBC, the proliferation of television and radio channels by the private sector would simply result in more and more channels, with tiny audiences, all seeking to do the same thing. The future would be one of fragmentation - fragmentation without either plurality or diversity.

  

  Gavyn Davies
  • Future
  • Same
  • Diversity

• My father didn't know his last name. My father got his last name from his grandfather, and his grandfather got it from his grandfather who got it from the slavemaster.

  

  Malcolm X
  • Father
  • Name
  • Grandfather

• The rewards for those who persevere far exceed the pain that must precede the victory.

  

  Ted Engstrom
  • Pain
  • Victory
  • Far

• Often the starting point for characters, for me, is finding a little, most minor detail, and I'll go from there.

  

  Patrick deWitt
  • Characters
  • Point
  • Finding

• But if I played well and prepared myself properly, then all I had to do was control myself and put myself in a position to win.

  

  Jack Nicklaus
  • Control
  • Myself
  • Win

• I think Russian people are learning that democracy is not an alien thing; it's not a western invention.

  Garry Kasparov
  • People
  • Learning
  • Democracy

• Each age, it is found, must write its own books; or rather, each generation for the next succeeding.

  

  Ralph Waldo Emerson
  • Age
  • Generation
  • Own

• I guess what all artists want is for their work to touch someone or for it to be thought provoking.

  

  Kate Bush
  • Work
  • Want
  • Thought

• Government can supply bread, but it can't mend a broken spirit.

  

  Rand Paul
  • Government
  • Broken
  • Bread

• I'm motivated by creating a level playing field for the world so that the weak have a chance.

  

  Iqbal Quadir
  • World
  • Chance
  • Motivated

• I love my early movies, but naturalism is an artist's early style. Now I want to deal with feelings, dreams, an acceptance of irrationality.

  

  Irvin Kershner
  • Love
  • Feelings
  • Dreams

• If you could go back and change things, you might not be the person you are right now.

  

  Walter Payton
  • You
  • Change
  • Now

• I don't think quotas are necessarily an evil. I think when we look at industry in general back to the '60s and the '50s, the way more diverse people like my dad and mom's generation were able to break into industry was because of affirmation action, because of quotas.

  

  Kimberly Bryant
  • People
  • Action
  • Dad

• Well... I graduated from the business school of Northumberland University in Newcastle.

  

  Alexei Mordashov
  • School
  • Business

• I'm all over the place, and I consider myself a bit of a scrounger: 'What will I do next, so I'm not broke?'

  

  Laura Kightlinger
  • Myself
  • Place
  • Broke

• I love... different kinds of music. I like classical music and pop music. I like alternative, and I like rap, hip-hop, and I kind of collected all these things that I love, and they infused my sensibilities, and I just wanted to sing because it felt like it needed to come out of me.

  

  Rachel Platten
  • Music
  • Like
  • Classical

• I kept turning down roles because I knew I just wasn't ready for them.

  

  Dinah Manoff

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

  

  James Thurber
  • Comedy