Quotes by George Jean Nathan

A life spent in constant labor is a life wasted, save a man be such a fool as to regard a fulsome obituary notice as ample reward.
– George Jean Nathan
A man reserves his true and deepest love not for the species of woman in whose company he finds himself electrified and enkindled, but for that one in whose company he may feel tenderly drowsy.
– George Jean Nathan
An optimist is a fellow who believes a housefly is looking for a way to get out.
– George Jean Nathan
Bad officials are elected by good citizens who do not vote.
– George Jean Nathan
Great art is as irrational as great music. It is mad with its own loveliness.
– George Jean Nathan
I know many married men, I even know a few happily married men, but I don't know one who wouldn't fall down the first open coal hole running after the first pretty girl who gave him a wink.
– George Jean Nathan
I only drink to make other people seem more interesting.
– George Jean Nathan
It is also said of me that I now and then contradict myself. Yes, I improve wonderfully as time goes on.
– George Jean Nathan
Love demands infinitely less than friendship.
– George Jean Nathan
Love is an emotion experienced by the many and enjoyed by the few.
– George Jean Nathan
No man can think clearly when his fists are clenched.
– George Jean Nathan
So long as there is one pretty girl left on the stage, the professional undertakers may hold up their burial of the theater.
– George Jean Nathan
The path of sound credence is through the thick forest of skepticism.
– George Jean Nathan
The test of a real comedian is whether you laugh at him before he opens his mouth.
– George Jean Nathan
To speak of morals in art is to speak of legislature in sex. Art is the sex of the imagination.
– George Jean Nathan
What passes for woman's intuition is often nothing more than man's transparency.
– George Jean Nathan
Women, as they grow older, rely more and more on cosmetics. Men, as they grow older, rely more and more on a sense of humor.
– George Jean Nathan
Politics is the diversion of trivial men who, when they succeed at it, become important in the eyes of more trivial men.
– George Jean Nathan
Patriotism is often an arbitrary veneration of real estate above principles.
– George Jean Nathan
It is only the cynicism that is born of success that is penetrating and valid.
– George Jean Nathan
Criticism is the windows and chandeliers of art: it illuminates the enveloping darkness in which art might otherwise rest only vaguely discernible, and perhaps altogether unseen.
– George Jean Nathan
Criticism is the art of appraising others at one's own value.
– George Jean Nathan
Beauty makes idiots sad and wise men merry.
– George Jean Nathan