Logan Pearsall Smith

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

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

"May it be accounted for by the fact that the spirit of Puritanism, having been banished from the province of moral conduct, has found a refuge among the arts?"

"Few things are more shocking to those who practice the arts of success than the frank description of those arts."

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

"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."

"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 enormous and half-educated publics of present-day England and America… acclaim as masterpieces books that are soon forgotten, while ignoring all that is exquisite and rare."