Logan Pearsall Smith

The indefatigable pursuit of an unattainable perfection, even though it consists in nothing more than the pounding of an old piano, is what alone gives meaning to our life on this unavailing star.

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

Solvency is entirely a matter of temperament and not of income.

Thank heavens the sun has gone in, and I don't have to go out and enjoy it.

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

Almost all reformers, however strict their social conscience, live in houses just as big as they can pay for.

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

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

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

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

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

I cannot forgive my friends for dying; I do not find these vanishing acts of theirs at all amusing.

How many of our daydreams would darken into nightmares if there seemed any danger of their coming true!

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

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

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

All Reformers, however strict their social conscience, live in houses just as big as they can pay for.

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 keep absolutely sober.

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

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

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.