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
There is no safety in numbers, or in anything else.
Interpretation
What this quote means
True safety does not come from being part of a group or relying on external factors; it comes from within.
James Thurber's quote suggests that mere numbers or external circumstances do not provide genuine safety or security. Instead, it implies that individuals should look inward and gain their own strength, confidence, and resilience, rather than relying on collective assurance or the support of others to feel secure.
Themes
SafetyNumbersIndividualityStrengthSecurity
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used during a motivational speech to emphasize personal growth and resilience.
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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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.
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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.
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Unless artists can remember what it was to be a little boy, they are only half complete as artist and as man.
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