Quotes from Logan Pearsall Smith

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

Only among people who think no evil can Evil monstrously flourish.

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

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

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

It is a matter of life and death for married people to interrupt each others stories; for it they did not, they would burst.

The newest books are those that never grow old.

He who goes against the fashion is himself its slave.

Youth is the time for adventures of the body, but age for the triumphs of the mind.

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

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

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

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

Don't tell friends their social faults; they will cure the fault and never forgive you.

A friend who loved perfection would be the perfect friend, did not that love shut his door on me.

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

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.

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

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

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

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

One can be bored until boredom becomes a mystical experience.

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

There are two things to aim at in life: first, to get what you want, and after that to enjoy it.