Max Eastman Quotes & Sayings

“A smile is the universal welcome.”

“People who demand neutrality in any situation are usually not neutral but in favor of the status quo.”

“Classic art was the art of necessity: modern romantic art bears the stamp of caprice and chance.”

“It is the ability to take a joke, not make one, that proves you have a sense of humor.”

“Humor is the instinct for taking pain playfully.”

“Dogs laugh, but they laugh with their tails.”

“A joke is not a thing but a process, a trick you play on the listener's mind. You start him off toward a plausible goal, and then by a sudden twist you land him nowhere at all or just where he didn't expect to go.”

“The defining function of the artist is to cherish consciousness.”

“The worst enemy of human hope is not brute facts, but men of brains who will not face them.”

“It is art that makes life, makes interest, makes importance and I know of no substitute whatever for the force and beauty of its process.”