Brander Matthews Quotes

• A highbrow is a person educated beyond his intelligence.

  Brander Matthews

  Intelligence, Educated, Persons

  45 Copy quote

• The art of the dramatist is very like the art of the architect. A plot has to be built up just as a house is built-story after story; and no edifice has any chance of standing unless it has a broad foundation and a solid frame.

  Brander Matthews

  Art, Writing, House

  26 Copy quote

• To be clear is the first duty of a writer; to charm and to please are graces to be acquired later.

  Brander Matthews

  Writing, Grace, Firsts

  15 Copy quote

• Be brief, be buoyant, and be brilliant.

  Brander Matthews

  Brilliant

  6 Copy quote

• Give a good deed the credit of a good motive; and give an evil deed the benefit of the doubt.

  Brander Matthews

  Evil, Giving, Doubt

  16 Copy quote

• A gentleman need not know Latin, but he should at least have forgotten it.

  Brander Matthews

  Education, Latin, Humorous

  6 Copy quote

• When I have no idea, I gnaw my nails and invoke the aid of Providence.

  Brander Matthews

  Ideas, Nails, Aids

  4 Copy quote

• There is a homely directness about these rustic apothegms which makes them far more palatable than the strained and sophisticated epigrams of the characters of Oscar Wilde's plays, who are ever striving strenuously to dazzle us with verbal pyrotechnics.

  Brander Matthews

  Character, Play, Oscars

  6 Copy quote

• In every artist we can perceive a man with both a message and a method. His message may be innate in him, but his method he has to acquire from others.

  Brander Matthews

  Artist, Men, May

  Brander Matthews (1919). “The principles of playmaking: and other discussions of the drama”

  6 Copy quote

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