James Thurber Quotes

When angry, count to four; when very angry, swear.

This quote kind of speaks for itself! If you find yourself getting really angry, taking a step back and counting to four can help calm you down before saying or doing anything regrettable. Anger is a natural human emotion that we all experience at some point.

Love is what you've been through with somebody.

It means you love someone in a way that you love no other. You love them so much, that it hurts to be without them. You love them so much, you take pleasure in seeing them smile. You don't need or want for anything when you have that deep a love; everything is just perfect.

Let us not look back in anger, nor forward in fear, but around in awareness.

Thurber is advising us to not look back at our past in regret and to not look towards the future with worry. All of us have some smudges on our life resumes. Things we should not have done. Mistakes we could have avoided. Bad decisions we made. But our failures, as well as our successes all, make up the journey we call life.

He who hesitates is sometimes saved.

Since hesitating means taking the time to think about the manner and seeing it from different points of view. Sometimes something blinds us from seeing the bad or the good side of an issue. Therefore hesitating will make everything clear and so a person is saved.