W. Somerset Maugham Quotes
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The artist produces for the liberation of his soul. It is his nature to create as it is the nature of water to run down the hill.
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Money is the string with which a sardonic destiny directs the motions of its puppets.
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There is no explanation for evil. It must be looked upon as a necessary part of the order of the universe. To ignore it is childish, to bewail it senseless.
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No egoism is so insufferable as that of the Christian with regard to his soul.
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I'll give you my opinion of the human race in a nutshell... their heart's in the right place, but their head is a thoroughly inefficient organ.
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It is not true that suffering ennobles the character; happiness does that sometimes, but suffering for the most part, makes men petty and vindictive.
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Have common sense and stick to the point.
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In Hollywood, the women are all peaches. It makes one long for an apple occasionally.
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Let us develop the resources of our land, call forth its powers, build up its institutions, promote all its great interests, and see whether we also, in our day and generation, may not perform something worthy to be remembered.
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It seems that the creative faculty and the critical faculty cannot exist together in their highest perfection.
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It's very hard to be a gentleman and a writer.
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Tradition is a guide and not a jailer.
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From the earliest time the old have rubbed it into the young that they are wiser, and before the young had discovered what nonsense this was they were old too, and it profited them to carry on the imposture.
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What has influenced my life more than any other single thing has been my stammer. Had I not stammered I would probably... have gone to Cambridge as my brothers did, perhaps have become a don and every now and then published a dreary book about French literature.
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I would sooner read a time-table or a catalogue than nothing at all. They are much more entertaining than half the novels that are written.
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We are not the same persons this year as last; nor are those we love. It is a happy chance if we, changing, continue to love a changed person.
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Writing is the supreme solace.
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Passion is destructive; if it does not destroy, it dies.
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The trouble with young writers is that they are all in their sixties.
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Tolerance is another word for indifference.
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A soul is a troublesome possession, and when man developed it he lost the Garden of Eden.
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I forget who it was that recommended men for their soul’s good to do each day two things they disliked: it was a wise man, and it is a precept that I have followed scrupulously; for every day I have got up and I have gone to bed.
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Sentimentality is the only sentiment that rubs you the wrong way.
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If you don't change your beliefs, your life will be like this forever. Is that good news?