George Jean Nathan

It is only the cynicism that is born of success that is penetrating and valid.

Politics is the diversion of trivial men who, when they succeed at it, become important in the eyes of more trivial men.

Patriotism is often an arbitrary veneration of real estate above principles.

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.

Love is an emotion experienced by the many and enjoyed by the few.

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.

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.

Bad officials are the ones elected by good citizens who do not vote.

Love demands infinitely less than friendship.

Beauty makes idiots sad and wise men merry.

Criticism is the art of appraising others at one's own value.

To speak of morals in art is to speak of legislature in sex. Art is the sex of the imagination.

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.

Great art is as irrational as great music. It is mad with its own loveliness.

No man can think clearly when his fists are clenched.