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There is in the human race some dark spirit of recalcitrance, always pulling us in the direction contrary to that in which we are reasonably expected to go.

Max Beerbohm

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Max Beerbohm
Age: 83 †
Born: 1872
Born: August 24
Died: 1956
Died: May 20
Caricaturist
Comedian
Drawer
Essayist
Illustrator
Journalist
Literary Critic
Novelist
Painter
Poet
Watercolorist
Writer
London
England
Sir Max Beerbohm
Sir Henry Maximilian Beerbohm
Sir Beerbohm
Henry Maximilian Beerbohm
Always
Contrary
Expected
Mankind
Race
Dark
Reasonably
Spirit
Humankind
Human
Pulling
Humans
Direction

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But to die of laughter--this, too, seems to me a great euthanasia.
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Only mediocrity can be trusted to be always at its best. Genius must always have lapses proportionate to its triumphs.
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Improvisation is the essence of good talk. Heaven defend us from the talker who doles out things prepared for us but let heaven not less defend us from the beautiful spontaneous writer who puts his trust in the inspiration of the moment.
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I prefer that laughter shall take me unawares. Only so can it master and dissolve me.
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No fine work can be done without concentration and self-sacrifice and toil and doubt.
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For people who like that kind of thing, this is the kind of thing they like.
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In every human being one or the other of these two instincts is predominant: the active or positive instinct to offer hospitality, the negative or passive instinct to accept it. And either of these instincts is so significant of character that one might as well say that mankind is divisible into two great classes: hosts and guests.
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As a teacher, as a propagandist, Mr. Shaw is no good at all, even in his own generation. But as a personality, he is immortal.
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The one real goal of education is to leave a person asking questions.
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Every one, even the richest and most munificent of men, pays much by cheque more light-heartedly than he pays little in specie.
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The loveliest face in all the world will not please you if you see it suddenly eye to eye, at a distance of half an inch from your own.
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It is a part of English hypocrisy or English reserve, that whilst we are fluent enough in grumbling about small inconveniences, we insist on making light of any great difficulties or grief's that may beset us.
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Somehow, our sense of justice never turns in its sleep till long after the sense of injustice in others has been thoroughly aroused.
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The Non-Conformist Conscience makes cowards of us all.
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To say that a man is vain means merely that he is pleased with the effect he produces on other people.
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I may be old fashioned, but I am right.
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True dandyism is the result of an artistic temperament working upon a fine body within the wide limits of fashion.
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The delicate balance between modesty and conceit is popularity.
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Have you noticed ... there is never any third act in a nightmare? They bring you to a climax of terror and then leave you there. They are the work of poor dramatists.
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