Logan Pearsall Smith

Don't laugh at a youth for his affectations; he is only trying on one face after another to find a face of his own.

It is through the cracks in our brains that ecstasy creeps in.

The test of a vocation is the love of the drudgery it involves.

When they come downstairs from their Ivory Towers, idealists are very apt to walk straight into the gutter.

To suppose as we all suppose, that we could be rich and not behave as the rich behave, is like supposing that we could drink all day and stay sober.

There are few sorrows, however poignant, in which a good income is of no avail.

There are people who, like houses, are beautiful in dilapidation.

What is more mortifying than to feel that you have missed the plum for want of courage to shake the tree?

Only a generation of readers will span a generation of writers.

How it infuriates a bigot, when he is forced to drag out his dark convictions!

There are two things to aim at in life: first, to get what you want, and after that to enjoy it. Only the wisest of mankind achieve the second.

A slight touch of friendly malice and amusement towards those we love keeps our affections for them from turning flat.

What's more enchanting than the voices of young people, when you can't hear what they say?

What I like in a good author is not what he says but what he whispers.

Charming people live up to the very edge of their charm, and behave as outrageously as the world lets them.

The denunciation of the young is a necessary part of the hygiene of older people, and greatly assists the circulation of the blood.

Those who set out to serve both God and Mammon soon discover that there is no God.

If you are losing your leisure, look out; you may be losing your soul.

How can they say my life is not a success? Have I not for more than sixty years got enough to eat and escaped being eaten?

It takes a great man to give sound advice tactfully, but a greater to accept it graciously.

If you want to be thought a liar, always tell the truth.

We need two kinds of acquaintances, one to complain to, while to the others we boast.

People say that life is the thing, but I prefer reading.

The vitality of a new movement in Art must be gauged by the fury it arouses.