Max Eastman
Max Eastman
Max Forrester Eastmanwas an American writer on literature, philosophy and society; a poet, and a prominent political activist. Moving to New York City for graduate school, Eastman became involved with liberal and radical circles in Greenwich Village. He supported socialism and became a leading patron of the Harlem Renaissance, and an activist for a number of liberal and radical causes. For several years, he edited The Masses. With his sister Crystal Eastman, in 1917 he co-founded The Liberator, a radical...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionAuthor
Date of Birth4 January 1883
CountryUnited States of America
Max Eastman quotes about
The real guarantee of freedom is an equilibrium of social forces in conflict, not the triumph of any one force.
If one were loyal to one's nation only because it was good and true ... one would not be loyal to any nation but to truth and goodness. The idea of patriotism would have no place either in our dictionaries or our lives.
Humor is a kind of emotional chaos told about calmly and quietly in retrospect.There is always a laugh in the utterly familiar.
There is truth in the high opinion that in so far as a man conforms, he ceases to exist.
The defining function of the artist is to cherish consciousness.
Laughter is, after speech, the chief thing that holds society together.
Humor is the instinct for taking pain playfully.
The worst enemy of human hope is not brute facts, but men of brains who will not face them.
People who demand neutrality in any situation are usually not neutral but in favor of the status quo.
There is something self-defeating in the too-conscious pursuit of pleasure.
A liberal mind is a mind that is able to imagine itself believing anything.
It is the ability to take a joke, not make one, that proves you have a sense of humor.
A smile is the universal welcome.
Dogs laugh, but they laugh with their tails.