W. Somerset Maugham Quotes
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Oh, it's always the same,' she sighed, 'if you want men to behave well to you, you must be beastly to them; if you treat them decently they make you suffer for it.
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There are times when I look over the various parts of my character with perplexity. I recognize that I am made up of several persons and that the person that at the moment has the upper hand will inevitably give place to another. But which is the real one? All of them or none?
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Most people are such fools that it is really no great compliment to say that someone is above the average.
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He did not care if she was heartless, vicious and vulgar, stupid and grasping, he loved her. He would rather have misery with one than happiness with the other.
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Her tears were partly tears of happiness, for she felt that the strangeness between them was gone. She loved him now with a new love because he had made her suffer.
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A novelist must preserve a childlike belief in the importance of things which common sense considers of no great consequence.
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When a woman loves you she's not satisfied until she possesses your soul. Because she's weak, she has a rage for domination, and nothing less will satisfy her.
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There is no more merit in being able to attach a correct description to a picture than in being able to find out what is wrong with a stalled motorcar. In each case it is special knowledge.
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In heaven, when the blessed use the telephone they will say what they have to say and not a word besides.
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The average American can get into the kingdom of heaven much more easily than he can get into the Boulevard St. Germain.
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Of all these the richest in beauty is the beautiful life. That is the perfect work of art. ~Waddington
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Charm and nothing but charm at last grows a little tiresome. It's a relief then to deal with a man who isn't quite so delightful but a little more sincere.
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Reverie is the groundwork of creative imagination; it is the privilege of the artist that with him it is not as with other men an escape from reality, but the means by which he accedes to it.
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Illusions are like umbrellas - you no sooner get them than you lose them, and the loss always leaves a little painful wound.
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She’s wonderful. Tell her I’ve never seen such beautiful hands. I wonder what she sees in you.” Waddington, smiling, translated the question. “She says I’m good.” “As if a woman ever loved a man for his virtue,” Kitty mocked.
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We find things beautiful because we recognize them and contrariwise we find things beautiful because their novelty surprises us.
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People are always a little disconcerted when you don't recognize them, they are so important to themselves, it is a shock to discover of what small importance they are to others. [The human element]
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No author can create a character out of nothing. He must have a model to give him a starting point; but then his imagination goes to work, he builds him up, adding a trait here, a trait there, which his model did not possess.
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It's always difficult to make conversation with a drunk, and there's no denying it, the sober are at a disadvantage with him.
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You cannot write well or much (and I venture the opinion that you cannot write well unless you write much) unless you form a habit.
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No woman is worth more than a fiver unless you're in love with her. Then she's worth all she costs you.
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I never spend more than one hour in a gallery. That is as long as one's power of appreciation persists.
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Common-sense appears to be only another name for the thoughtlessness of the unthinking. It is made of the prejudices of childhood, the idiosyncrasies of individual character and the opinion of the newspapers.
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It is dangerous to let the public behind the scenes. They are easily disillusioned and then they are angry with you, for it was the illusion they loved.