Logan Pearsall Smith's Quotes

People before the public live an imagined life in the thought of others, and flourish or feel faint as their self outside themselves grows bright or dwindles in that mirror.

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.

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

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.

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

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

Hearts that are delicate and kind and tongues that are neither - these make the finest company in the world.

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

Many of our daydreams would darken into nightmares, were there a danger of their coming true!

The mere process of growing old together will make our slightest acquaintances seem like bosom friends.

A best-seller is the gilded tomb of a mediocre talent.

All my life, as down an abyss without a bottom. I have been pouring van loads of information into that vacancy of oblivion I call my mind.

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

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.

Don't let young people tell you their aspirations; when they drop them they will drop you.

Every author, however modest, keeps a most outrageous vanity chained like a madman in the padded cell of his breast.

Happiness is a wine of the rarest vintage, and seems insipid to a vulgar taste.

He who goes against the fashion is himself its slave.

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

I can't forgive my friends for dying; I don't find these vanishing acts of theirs at all amusing.

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

It is the wretchedness of being rich that you have to live with rich people.

Most people sell their souls, and live with a good conscience on the proceeds.

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