One great advantage which poetry has over prose—one sense in which, we might even say, it is considerably more beautiful—is that it fills up space approximately three times as rapidly.

More from Collecting Himself: James Thurber on Writing and Writers, Humor and Himself

• But what is all this fear of and opposition to Oblivion? What is the matter with the soft Darkness, the Dreamless Sleep?
• From now on, I think it is safe to predict, neither the Democratic nor the Republican Party will ever nominate for President a candidate without good looks, stage presence, theatrical delivery, and a sense of timing.
• It is better to ask some of the questions than to know all the answers.
• It is better to have loafed and lost, than never to have loafed at all.
• Laughter need not be cut out of anything, since it improves everything.
• Let us not look back in anger or forward in fear, but around in awareness.