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The Truth Is That The Phenomena Of Artistic Production Are Still So Obscure, So Baffling, We Are Still So Far From An Accurate Scientific And Psychological Knowledge Of Their Genesis Or Meaning, That We Are Forced To Accept Them As Empirical Facts; And Empirical And Non-explanatory Names Are The Names That Suit Them Best.

-Logan Pearsall Smith

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The Truth Is That

Logan Pearsall Smith

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The Truth Is That The Phenomena Of Artistic Production Are Still So Obscure, So Baffling, We Are Still So Far From An Accurate Scientific And Psychological Knowledge Of Their Genesis Or Meaning, That We Are Forced To Accept Them As Empirical Facts; And Empirical And Non-explanatory Names Are The Names That Suit Them Best.

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What I Like In A Good Author Is Not What He Says But What He Whispers.

To Become Young Again Would Seem To Me An Appalling Prospect. Youth Is A Kind Of Delirium, Which Can Be Cured, If It Is Ever Cured At All, By Years Of Painful Treatment.

An Improper Mind Is A Perpetual Feast.

When Elderly Invalids Meet With Fellow-victims Of Their Own Ailments, Then At Last Real Conversation Begins, And Life Is Delicious.

But Man Is Above All A Social And Political Animal; His Relations With His Fellow Human Beings Form His Most Absorbing And Important Interest.

If You Want To Be Thought A Liar, Always Tell The Truth

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.

It Is A Matter Of Life And Death For Married People To Interrupt Each Others Stories; For It They Did Not, They Would Burst.

Growing Old Is Not A Gradual Decline, But A Series Of Drops, Full Of Sorrow, From One Ledge To Another Below It.

The Mere Process Of Growing Old Together Will Make The Slightest Acquaintance Seem A Bosom Friend.

We Should Nourish Our Souls On The Dew Of Poesy, And Manure Them As Well.

One Can Be Bored Until Boredom Becomes A Mystical Experience.

Mystical Experiences

The Emergence Of A New Term To Describe A Certain Phenomenon, Of A New Adjective To Designate A Certain Quality, Is Always Of Interest, Both Linguistically And From The Point Of View Of The History Of Human Thought.

All Our Lives We Are Putting Pennies — Our Most Golden Pennies — Into Penny-in-the-slot Machines That Are Almost Always Empty.

Charming People Live Up To The Very Edge Of Their Charm, And Behave As Outrageously As The World Will Let Them.

We Need Two Kinds Of Acquaintances, One To Complain To, While To The Others We Boast.

There Is More Felicity On The Far Side Of Baldness Than Young Men Can Possibly Imagine.

How It Infuriates A Bigot, When He Is Forced To Drag Out His Dark Convictions!

The Word Snob Belongs To The Sour-grape Vocabulary.

It Is Through The Cracks In Our Brains That Ecstasy Creeps In.

He Who Goes Against The Fashion Is Himself Its Slave

People Say That Life Is The Thing, But I Prefer Reading.

If You Are Losing Your Leisure, Look Out! You Are Losing Your Soul.

It Is The Dread Of Something Happening, Something Unknown And Dreadful, That Makes Us Do Anything To Keep The Flicker Of Talk From Dying Out.

Uncultivated Minds Are Not Full Of Wild Flowers, Like Uncultivated Fields. Villainous Weeds Grow In Them And They Are The Haunt Of Toads.

For Souls In Growth, Great Quarrels Are Great Emancipations.

It Is The Wretchedness Of Being Rich That You Have To Live With Rich People.

Fine Writers Should Split Hairs Together, And Sit Side By Side, Like Friendly Apes, To Pick The Fleas From Each Others Fur.

Money And Sex Are Forces Too Unruly For Our Reason; They Can Only Be Controlled By Taboos With Which We Tamper At Our Peril.

Solvency Is Entirely A Matter Of Temperament And Not Of Income.

I Like To Walk Down Bond Street, Thinking Of All The Things I Don't Desire.

There Are Few Sorrows In Which A Good Income Is Of No Avail.

But Why Wasn't I Born, Alas, In An Age Of Adjectives; Why Can One No Longer Write Of Silver-shedding Tears And Moon-tailed Peacocks, Of Eloquent Death, Of The Negro And Star-enameled Night?

The Test Of A Vocation Is The Love Of The Drudgery It Involves.

Our Names Are Labels, Plainly Printed On The Bottled Essence Of Our Past Behavior.

Those Who Talk On The Razor-edge Of Double-meanings Pluck The Rarest Blooms From The Precipice On Either Side.

Meaning Of Life

What Things There Are To Write, If One Could Only Write Them! My Mind Is Full Of Gleaming Thought; Gay Moods And Mysterious, Moth-like Meditations Hover In My Imagination, Fanning Their Painted Wings. But Always The Rarest, Those Streaked With Azure And The Deepest Crimson, Flutter Away Beyond My Reach.

Friends Such As We Desire Are Dreams And Fables, Yet We Never Quite Give Up The Hope Of Finding Them.

We Grow With Years More Fragile In Body, But Morally Stutter, And Can Throw Off The Chill Of A Bad Conscience Almost At Once.

There Are People Who, Like Houses, Are Beautiful In Dilapidation.

Most People Sell Their Souls, And Live With A Good Conscience On The Proceeds.

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.

All Reformers, However Strict Their Social Conscience, Live In Houses Just As Big As They Can Pay For.

What Joy Can The Years Bring Half So Sweet As The Unhappiness They've Taken Away?

A Slight Touch Of Friendly Malice And Amusement Towards Those We Love Keeps Our Affections For Them From Turning Flat.

What Pursuit Is More Elegant Than That Of Collecting The Ignominies Of Our Nature And Transfixing Them For Show, Each On The Bright Pin Of A Polished Phrase?

The Great Art Of Writing Is The Art Of Making People Real To Themselves With Words.

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What Is More Mortifying Than To Feel That You Have Missed The Plum For Want Of Courage To Shake The Tree?

Style Is A Magic Wand, And Turns Everything To Gold That It Touches.

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We Need New Friends; Some Of Us Are Cannibals Who Have Eaten Their Old Friends Up; Others Must Have Ever-renewed Audiences Before Whom To Re-enact The Ideal Version Of Their Lives.

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When They Come Downstairs From Their Ivory Towers, Idealists Are Very Apt To Walk Straight Into The Gutter.

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Eat With The Rich, But Go To The Play With The Poor, Who Are Capable Of Joy.

Those Who Set Out To Serve Both God And Mammon Soon Discover That There Isn't A God.

People Have A Right To Be Shocked; The Mention Of Unmentionable Things Is A Kind Of Participation In Them.

It's An Odd Thing About This Universe That, Though We All Disagree With Each Other, We Are All Of Us Always In The Right.

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The Ladies Who Try To Keep Their Beauty Are The Ladies Who Lose It.

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How Many Of Our Daydreams Would Darken Into Nightmares If There Seemed Any Danger Of Their Coming True!

Dreaming About You

So, I Never Lose A Sense Of The Whimsical And Perilous Charm Of Daily Life, With Its Meetings And Words And Accidents.

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?

Youth Is The Time For Adventures Of The Body, But Age For The Triumphs Of The Mind.

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Every Author, However Modest, Keeps A Most Outrageous Vanity Chained Like A Madman In The Padded Cell Of His Breast.

If They Lost The Incredible Conviction That They Can Change Their Wives Or Husbands, Marriage Would Collapse At Once.

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