If I have any beliefs about immortality, it is that certain dogs I have known will go to heaven, and very, very few persons.
James ThurberRead
Humor is a serious thing. I like to think of it as one of our greatest earliest natural resources, which must be preserved at all cost.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Humor is a vital and valuable aspect of life that deserves protection and appreciation.
James Thurber's quote highlights the significance of humor as an essential human quality and a natural resource that enriches our lives. It implies that humor is not just frivolous but rather a fundamental element that should be nurtured and upheld, as it contributes to our well-being and the fabric of society.
Themes
HumorNatural ResourceImportancePreservationLaughter
In practice
Example use cases
In a motivational speech about resilience, referencing this quote can emphasize the healing power of laughter.
More from James Thurber
All quotes βSpeed is scarcely the noblest virtue of graphic composition, but it has its curious rewards. There is a sense of getting somewhere fast, which satisfies a native American urge.
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The laughter of man is more terrible than his tears, and takes more forms hollow, heartless, mirthless, maniacal.
James ThurberRead
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 ThurberRead
The appreciative smile, the chuckle, the soundless mirth, so important to the success of comedy, cannot be understood unless one sits among the audience and feels the warmth created by the quality of laughter that the audience takes home with it.
James ThurberRead
Unless artists can remember what it was to be a little boy, they are only half complete as artist and as man.
James ThurberRead
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A day without laughter is a day wasted.
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There was a time when people said, 'Jim, if you keep on making faces, your face will freeze like that.' Now they just say, 'Pay him!'
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A bore is someone who deprives you of solitude without providing you with company.
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Humor has to surprise us; otherwise, it isn't funny. It's a death knell for a writer to be labeled a humorist because then it's not a surprise anymore.
Garrison KeillorRead