Quote collection
169 quotes — follow a thought to its full quote page.
"The wit makes fun of other persons; the satirist makes fun of the world; the humorist makes fun of himself, but in so doing, he identifies himself with people - that is, people everywhere, not for the purpose of taking them apart, but simply revealing their true nature."
"I do not have a psychiatrist and I do not want one, for the simple reason that if he listened to me long enough, he might become disturbed."
"The wit makes fun of other persons; the satirist makes fun of the world; the humorist makes fun of himself."
"Boys are beyond the range of anybody's sure understanding, at least when they are between the ages of 18 months and 90 years."
"Writers of comedy have outlook, whereas writers of tragedy have, according to them, insight."
"Humor and pathos, tears and laughter are, in the highest expression of human character and achievement, inseparable."
"The laughter of man is more terrible than his tears, and takes more forms -hollow, heartless, mirthless, maniacal."
"The dog has got more fun out of Man than Man has got out of the dog, for the clearly demonstrable reason that Man is the more laughable of the two animals"
"I don't believe the writer should know too much where he's going. If he does, he runs into old man blueprintold man propaganda."
"A pinch of probability is worth a pound of perhaps."
"Reason is 6/7 of treason."
"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."
"Don't count your boobies until they are hatched."
"Nowadays men lead lives of noisy desperation."
"Editing should be, especially in the case of old writers, a counselling rather than a collaborating task. The tendency of the writer-editor to collaborate is natural, but he should say to himself, 'How can I help this writer to say it better in his own style?' and avoid 'How can I show him how I would write it, if it were my piece?'"
"Progress was all right. Only it went on too long."
"He who hesitates is sometimes saved."
"Americans want to go to heaven without dying."
"She wasn't much to look at but she was something to think about."
"You might as well fall flat on your face as lean over too far backward."