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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
Race
Dark
Reasonably
Spirit
Humankind
Human
Pulling
Humans
Direction
Always
Contrary
Expected
Mankind

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The delicate balance between modesty and conceit is popularity.
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A quiet city is a contradiction in terms. It is a thing uncanny, spectral.
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No Roman ever was able to say, 'I dined last night with the Borgias'.
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Men prominent in life are mostly hard to converse with. They lack small-talk, and at the same time one doesn't like to confront them with their own great themes.
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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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People who insist on telling their dreams are among the terrors of the breakfast table.
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Strange when you come to think of it, that of all countless folk who have lived on this planet, not one is known in history or in legend as having died of laughter.
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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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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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The one real goal of education is to leave a person asking questions.
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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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Good sense about trivialities is better than nonsense about things that matter.
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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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Of all the objects of hatred, a woman once loved is the most hateful.
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The Socratic manner is not a game at which two can play.
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The Non-Conformist Conscience makes cowards of us all.
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Incongruity is the mainspring of laughter.
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The dullard's envy of brilliant men is always assuaged by the suspicion that they will come to a bad end.
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