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Considering how foolishly people act and how pleasantly they prattle, perhaps it would be better for the world if they talked more and did less.
W. Somerset Maugham
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W. Somerset Maugham
Age: 90 †
Born: 1874
Born: January 1
Died: 1965
Died: January 1
Army Scout
Literary Critic
Novelist
Physician Writer
Playwright
Prosaist
Screenwriter
Writer
Paris
France
W. Somerset Maugham
Somerset Maugham
Less
Better
Would
Prattle
World
Foolishly
People
Pleasantly
Considering
Talked
Perhaps
More quotes by W. Somerset Maugham
Men have ascribed to God imperfections that they would deplore in themselves.
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The author always loads his dice, but he must never let the reader see that he has done so, and by the manipulation of his plot, he can engage the reader's attention so that he does not perceive the violence that has been done to him.
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When you choose your friends, don't be short-changed by choosing personality over character.
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From old habit, unconsciously he thanked God that he no longer believed in Him.
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People who ask for your criticism want only praise.
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The well dressed man is he whose clothes you never notice
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Marco Polo tells the tale of The Old Man in the Mountains and how he recruits new members to his Band of Assassins by means of drugs, beautiful women, lush gardens, and religious promises. The unfortunate thing about this world is that the good habits are much easier to give up than the bad ones.
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Art is merely the refuge which the ingenious have invented, when they were supplied with food and women, to escape the tediousness of life.
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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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I can imagine no more comfortable frame of mind for the conduct of life than a humorous resignation.
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A woman will always sacrifice herself if you give her the opportunity. It is her favourite form of self indulgence.
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Hypocrisy is the most difficult and nerve-racking vice that any man can pursue it needs an unceasing vigilance and a rare detachment of spirit. It cannot, like adultery or gluttony, be practiced at spare moments it is a whole-time job.
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I wonder how anyone can have the face to condemn others when he reflects upon his own thoughts.
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If you can tell stories, create characters, devise incidents, and have sincerity and passion, it doesn't matter a damn how you write.
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There's no one as transparent as the person who thinks he's devilish deep.
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She alone had been blind to his merit. Why? Because he loved her and she did not love him. What was it in the human heart that made you despise a man because he loved you?
W. Somerset Maugham
You know what the critics are. If you tell the truth they only say you're cynical and it does an author no good to get a reputation for cynicism.
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When things are at their worst, I find something always happens.
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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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There is nothing so terrible as the pursuit of art by those who have no talent.
W. Somerset Maugham
