George Jean Nathan

George Jean Nathan

15 quotes

The American drama critic and magazine editor George Jean Nathan is someone whose pithy observations have become part of everyday conversation. George Jean Nathan's observations on Art are as sharp as their thoughts on Men, revealing genuine breadth of mind. Discover 22 of George Jean Nathan's most memorable quotes, ranging across Art, Men, Love, Women, and Success. Among their most shared lines: "Great art is as irrational as great music. It is mad with its own loveliness."

“Beauty makes idiots sad and wise men merry.”

— George Jean Nathan

Beauty

All Quotes by George Jean Nathan

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

— George Jean Nathan

Art

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

— George Jean Nathan

Patriotism

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

— George Jean Nathan

Art

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

— George Jean Nathan

Art

“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

Politics

“No man can think clearly when his fists are clenched.”

— George Jean Nathan

Anger

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

— George Jean Nathan

Good

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

— George Jean Nathan

Success

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

— George Jean Nathan

Love

“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

Men

“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

Art

“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

Humor

“Beauty makes idiots sad and wise men merry.”

— George Jean Nathan

Beauty

“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

Love

“Love demands infinitely less than friendship.”

— George Jean Nathan

Friendship