Nowadays most men lead lives of noisy desperation.

Thurber’s line recasts Thoreau’s famous diagnosis—“quiet desperation”—for a modern, urban, media-saturated world. “Noisy” suggests that anxiety and dissatisfaction are no longer hidden beneath routines but are broadcast through busyness, complaint, performance, and constant stimulation. The phrase implies that modern life can turn private unease into public clamor: people fill silence with activity and sound to avoid confronting emptiness or fear. It also carries Thurber’s characteristic satiric edge, hinting that the very loudness meant to prove vitality may instead betray desperation. The quote endures as a critique of distraction as a coping mechanism.