"When all things are equal, translucence in writing is more effective than transparency, just as glow is more revealing than glare."

James Thurber Journalism See all quotes by James Thurber →

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More by James Thurber

“It is better to have loafed and lost, than never to have loafed at all.”

“All men kill the thing they hate, too, unless, of course, it kills them first.”

“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.”

“It's a naïve domestic Burgundy without any breeding, but I think you'll be amused by its presumption.”

“Somebody has said that woman's place is in the wrong. That's fine. What the wrong needs is a woman's presence and a woman's touch. She is far better equipped than men to set it right.”

“With 60 staring me in the face, I have developed inflammation of the sentence structure and a definite hardening of the paragraphs.”

Resonant Thoughts

"What do I care about Jupiter? Justice is a human issue, and I do not need a god to teach it to me."

— Jean-Paul Sartre

Philosophy1905–1980

#justice

"The navy and the powder-boat would be all-sufficient, and I rather liked the notion, as the expedition would be entirely a naval affair."

— David Dixon Porter

Military1813–1891

#justice

"Suppose it be granted that Mr. Cleveland is a just man, and desires to protect colored citizens in the exercise of their constitutional rights. What is he, and what is any man in the Presidential chai…"

— Frederick Douglass

Social Activism1818–1895

#justice

"The orthodox approaches, whether the authors think they have made derivations or assumptions, are just fine FAPP — when used with the good taste and discretion picked up from exposure to good examples…"

— John Stewart Bell

Science1928–1990

#justice