Literary Birthday – 18 October – Logan Pearsall Smith

Logan Pearsall Smith was born 18 October 1865, and died 2 March 1946.

Quotes

1. People say that life is the thing, but I prefer reading.
2. What I like in a good author is not what he says, but what he whispers.
3. 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.
4. The test of enjoyment is the remembrance which it leaves behind.
5. Every author, however modest, keeps a most outrageous vanity chained like a madman in the padded cell of his breast.
6. If you are losing your leisure, look out! You are losing your soul.
7. Yes there is a meaning; at least for me, there is one thing that matters – to set a chime of words tinkling in the minds of a few fastidious people.
8. Style is a magic wand, and turns everything to gold that it touches.
9. The great art of writing is the art of making people real to themselves with words.

Logan Pearsall Smith was an American-born British essayist and critic who was known for his aphorisms and epigrams. He was a literary perfectionist and could take days refining his sentences. With Words and Idioms he became a recognised authority on the correct use of English.

Source for Image

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Lady_Henry_Somerset_with_Hannah_Whitall_Smith,_Mary_Brenson,_Logan_Pearsall_Smith,_Karin_Stephen_and_Ray_Strachey.jpg

Unknown photographer, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

 by Amanda Patterson

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