George Jean Nathan - Quotations

Quotations

"One does not go to the theater to see life and nature; one goes to see the particular way in which life and nature happen to look to a cultivated, imaginative and entertaining man who happens, in turn, to be a playwright."
"Patriotism is an arbitrary veneration of real estate above principles."
"Great art is as irrational as great music. It is mad with its own loveliness." (From his book House of Satan)
"Bad officials are elected by good citizens who do not vote."
"My code of life and conduct is simply this: work hard, play to the allowable limit, disregard equally the good and bad opinion of others, never do a friend a dirty trick, eat and drink what you feel like when you feel like, never grow indignant over anything, trust to tobacco for calm and serenity, bathe twice a day . . . learn to play at least one musical instrument and then play it only in private, never allow one's self even a passing thought of death, never contradict anyone or seek to prove anything to anyone unless one gets paid for it in cold, hard coin, live the moment to the utmost of its possibilities, treat one's enemies with polite inconsideration, avoid persons who are chronically in need, and be satisfied with life always but never with one's self."
"No man can think clearly when his fists are clenched."
"I drink to make other people interesting."
"Opera in English is, in the main, just about as sensible a plea as baseball in Italian."

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Famous quotes containing the word quotations:

    “Reading any collection of a man’s quotations is like eating the ingredients that go into a stew instead of cooking them together in the pot. You eat all the carrots, then all the potatoes, then the meat. You won’t go away hungry, but it’s not quite satisfying. Only a biography, or autobiography, gives you the hot meal.”
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