37 quotes
How many of our daydreams would darken into nightmares if there seemed any danger of their coming true!
Afterthoughts (1931)
Don't laugh at a youth for his affectations; he is only trying on one face after another to find his own.
Afterthoughts (1931)
There are few sorrows, however poignant, in which a good income is of no avail.
Afterthoughts (1931)
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.
Afterthoughts (1931)
The indefatigable pursuit of an unattainable perfection, even though it consist in nothing more than the pounding of an old piano, is what alone gives a meaning to our life on this unavailing star.
Afterthoughts (1931)
People say that life is the thing, but I prefer reading.
Afterthoughts (1931)
Most people sell their souls, and live with a good conscience on the proceeds.
Afterthoughts (1931)
Few things are more shocking to those who practice the arts of success than the frank description of those arts.
Reperusals and Recollections (1936)
It is the wretchedness of being rich that you have to live with rich people.
Afterthoughts (1931)
The test of a vocation is the love of the drudgery it involves.
Afterthoughts (1931)
But man is above all a social and political animal; his relations with his fellow human beings form his most absorbing and important interest.
The notion of making money by popular work, and then retiring to do good work on the proceeds, is the most familiar of all the devil's traps for artists.
Afterthoughts (1931)
Happiness is a wine of the rarest vintage, and seems insipid to vulgar taste.
Afterthoughts (1931)
Thank heavens, the sun has gone in, and I don't have to go out and enjoy it.
All Trivia: Trivia, More Trivia, Afterthoughts, Last Words (1933)
Fine writers should split hairs together, and sit side by side, like friendly apes, to pick the fleas from each other's fur.
What music is more enchanting than the voices of young people, when you can't hear what they say?
Afterthoughts (1931)
The denunciation of the young is a necessary part of the hygiene of older people, and greatly assists in the circulation of their blood.
Afterthoughts (1931)
All Reformers, however strict their social conscience, live in houses just as big as they can pay for.
Afterthoughts (1931)
May it [the opposition to fine writing] 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?
Reperusals and Recollections (1936)
I cannot forgive my friends for dying; I do not find these vanishing acts of theirs at all amusing.
Afterthoughts (1931)