Why should you think that beauty, which is the most precious thing in the world, lies like a stone on the beach for the careless passer-by to pick up idly?
W. SOMERSET MAUGHAMWe seek pitifully to convey to others the treasures of our heart, but they have not the power to accept them, and so we go lonely, side by side but not together, unable to know our fellows and unknown by them.
More W. Somerset Maugham Quotes
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You demand unselfishness from others, which is a preposterous claim that they should sacrifice their desires to yours. Why should they?
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It was such a beautiful day I decided to stay in bed.
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We seek pitifully to convey to others the treasures of our heart, but they have not the power to accept them, and so we go lonely, side by side but not together, unable to know our fellows and unknown by them.
W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM -
Beauty is an ecstasy; it is as simple as hunger.
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There is nothing so terrible as the pursuit of art by those who have no talent.
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Often the best way to overcome desire is to satisfy it.
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If a nation values anything more than freedom, it will lose its freedom; and the irony of it is that if it is comfort or money that it values more, it will lose that too.
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The crown of literature is poetry. It is its end and aim. It is the sublimest activity of the human mind. It is the achievement of beauty and delicacy. The writer of prose can only step aside when the poet passes.
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People ask for criticism, but they only want praise.
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You know, there are two good things in life, freedom of thought and freedom of action.
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It’s no good trying to keep up old friendships. It’s painful for both sides. The fact is, one grows out of people, and the only thing is to face it.
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She loved three things – a joke, a glass of wine, and a handsome man.
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Only a mediocre person is always at his best.
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The Almighty can hardly be such a fool as the churches make out.
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An unfortunate thing about this world is that the good habits are much easier to give up than the bad ones.
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You learn more quickly under the guidance of experienced teachers.
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It was such a beautiful day I decided to stay in bed.
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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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A bird in the hand was worth two in the bush, he told her, to which she retorted that a proverb was the last refuge of the mentally destitute.
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if you’d ever had a grown-up daughter you’d know that by comparison a bucking steer is easy to manage. And as to knowing what goes on inside her – well, it’s much better to pretend you’re the simple, innocent old fool she almost certainly takes you for.
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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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What does democracy come down to? The persuasive power of slogans invented by wily self-seeking politicians.
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They have no manners and are woefully unable to deal with any social predicament. Their idea of a celebration is to go to a public house and drink six beers. They are mean, malicious and envious . They are scum.
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He is not famous. It may be that he never will be. It may be that when his life at last comes to an end he will leave no more trace of his sojourn on earth than a stone thrown into a river leaves on the surface of the water.
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I wish I could make you see how much fuller the life I offer you is than anything you have a conception of.
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Any society that values wealth above freedom will lose its freedom, and will ultimately lose its wealth as well
W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM