33 Heywood Broun Quotes

Heywood Broun quotes

1. Being a well-dressed man is a career, and he who goes in for it has no time for anything else.

2. In the march up to the heights of fame, there comes a spot close to the summit in which a man reads nothing but detective stories.

3. Nobody talks so constantly about God as those who insist that there is no God.

4. Brotherhood is not just a Bible word. Out of comradeship can come and will come the happy life for all.

5. Everybody favors free speech in the slack moments when no axes are being ground.

6. I doubt whether the world holds for any one a more soul-stirring surprise than the first adventure with ice-cream.

7. Sports do not build character. They reveal it.

8. The ability to make love frivolously is the chief characteristic which distinguishes human beings from beasts.

9. The great threat to the young and pure in heart is not what they read but what they don't read.

10. The most casual examination will reveal the fact that all the jokes about the horrible results of masculine cooking and sewing are written by men. It is all part of a great scheme of sex propaganda.

11. The tragedy of life is not that man loses but that he almost wins.

1. Only Puritans think of the Devil as the most fascinating figure in the universe.

2. I do know that whenever a player hits the ball out of the park, I have a sense of elation. I feel as if I had done it.

3. A technical objection is the first refuge of a scoundrel.

4. Everybody favours free speech in the slack moments when no axes are being ground.

5. Hell is paved with great granite blocks hewn from the hearts of those who said, I can do no other.

6. The editorial strategy of the 'World' is seemingly rested upon the theory that in a desperate cause, it is well to ask a little less than you hope to get. I think you should ask more.

7. I do not see a necessary connection between proletarian literature and some set percentage of words which bring the blushes to a maiden's cheek.

8. People who come up through life or literature the hard way must inevitably carry their scars with them into composition.

9. Life is not a matter of theories. Life is a matter of facts. It calls on the young and the old alike to face these facts, even though they are hard and sometimes unpleasant.

10. For the truth there is no deadline.

11. When the ball was last seen crossing the roof of the stand in deep right field at 315 feet, we wonder whether new baseballs conversing together in the original package ever remark: "Join Ruth and see the world."

12. Nobody talks about God as those who insist that there is no God.

13. Even the revolutionary writer will err if he fails to grasp the enormous effectiveness of occasional understatement.

14. For truth there is no deadline.

15. Perhaps the most startling reversal of tradition came in the case of Lefty Grove. He shattered the cruel slanders which have always followed lefthanders.

16. Every now and then, we hear parents commenting on the fearful things which motion pictures may do to the minds of children. They seem to think that a little child is full of sweetness and of light. We had the same notion until we had a chance to listen intently to the prattle of a three-year-old.

17. God, as some cynic has said, is always on the side which has the best football coach.

18. It is ridiculous to say that Sacco and Vanzetti are being railroaded to the chair. The situation is much worse than that. This is a thing done cold-bloodedly and with deliberation. But care and deliberation do not guarantee justice.

19. Increasingly, it becomes evident that managing a ball club is a psychiatrist's job. In a short series, the mental attitude of the combatants is everything.

20. We are under no delusions as to the innate goodness even of very small children. They are bad a great deal of the time, but before it has been knocked out of them, they see no limit to the potentialities of the human will. Theirs is the faith to move mountains, because they do not yet know the fearful heft of them.

21. The tradition of professional baseball always has been agreeably free of chivalry. The rule is, "Do anything you can get away with."

22. The ablity to make love frivolously is the thing which distinguishes human beings from the beasts.