When I was a junior in high school, AP US History and jazz band were held at the same time. As a result, I can play a mean bebop line, but I have a totally remedial understanding of US history.

Of course, as an avid devourer of information, I’ve filled in random patches along the way – a book here, a documentary there, hours of wikipedia trolling in between.

Often enough, my best source of information is to trace backwards from a quote. Find something interesting said, and odds are the person who said it was interesting too. Which is why, in the wake of yesterday’s post, I got curious about George Jean Nathan.

A renowned theater critic, and an eminently quotable one, he also put forth perhaps the best set of life instruction I’ve yet come across:

My code of life and conduct is simply this: work hard, play to the allowable limit, disregard equally the good and bad opinion of others, never do a friend a dirty trick, eat and drink what you feel like when you feel like, never grow indignant over anything, trust to tobacco for calm and serenity, bathe twice a day . . . learn to play at least one musical instrument and then play it only in private, never allow one’s self even a passing thought of death, never contradict anyone or seek to prove anything to anyone unless one gets paid for it in cold, hard coin, live the moment to the utmost of its possibilities, treat one’s enemies with polite inconsideration, avoid persons who are chronically in need, and be satisfied with life always but never with one’s self.