George Jean Nathan was an American magazine editor and drama critic, best known for establishing the magazine ‘The Smart Set’ in collaboration with H.L. Mencken, another pillar of American journalism. Nathan studied at the prestigious Cornell University and right from the time that he was a student, he showed a flair as an editor. During his time at Cornell University, he served as the editor of the ‘Cornell Daily Sun’. After launching his career in the print media, he quickly became one of the most influential editors and drama critics in the United States by dint of his brilliance and knowledge of the craft. ‘The Smart Set’ became one of the most prominent literary magazines in America due to his efforts and collaboration with H.L. Mencken. In addition to that, he had also been the founder as well as the editor of two other magazines, ‘The American Spectator’ and ‘The American Mercury’. Nathan was a man of rare intellect, who in his capacity as editor and critic, was known to speak his mind and express his thoughts on a variety of subjects. Following is a collection of quotable quotes and sayings by George Jean Nathan which have been excerpted from his columns, writings, works, thoughts and life. Read through some of George Jean Nathan’s best known quotations and sayings.
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.
Common sense, in so far as it exists, is all for the bourgeoisie. Nonsense is the privilege of the aristocracy. The worries of the world are for the common people.
George Jean Nathan
The test of a real comedian is whether you laugh at him before he opens his mouth.
George Jean Nathan
No man can think clearly when his fists are clenched.
All that is necessary to raise imbecility into what the mob regards as profundity is to lift it off the floor and put it on a platform.
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
Opening Night: The night before the play is ready to open.
George Jean Nathan
Patriotism is often an arbitrary veneration of real estate above principles.
George Jean Nathan
What passes for woman's intuition is often nothing more than man's transparency.
George Jean Nathan
It may be said that artist and censor differ in this wise: that the first is a decent mind in an indecent body and that the second is an indecent mind in a decent body.
Marriage is based on the theory that when a man discovers a brand of beer exactly to his taste, he should at once throw up his job and go to work inthe brewery.
