Women, as they grow older, rely more and more on cosmetics. Men, as they grow older, rely more and more on a sense of humor.

In this epigram, Nathan contrasts culturally gendered strategies for coping with aging. “Cosmetics” stands for the social pressure on women to preserve youthful appearance and to manage how they are seen; “a sense of humor” stands for a typically male-coded resource—wit, irony, and self-deprecation—used to deflect anxiety about decline. The line is characteristic of Nathan’s barbed, theatrical criticism of modern manners: it reads less as a neutral observation than as a satirical comment on unequal expectations. Its sting lies in implying that women are pushed toward surface remedies, while men are permitted (or choose) psychological ones.