Max Eastman Quotes

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.

A smile is the universal welcome.

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

Dogs laugh, but they laugh with their tails.

Humor is the instinct for taking pain playfully.

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.

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

The defining function of the artist is to cherish consciousness.