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You've been brought up like a gentleman and a Christian, and I should be false to the trust laid upon me by your dead father and mother if I allowed you to expose yourself to such temptation.' Well, I know I'm not a Christian and I'm beginning to doubt whether I'm a gentleman,' said Philip.

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
Well
Dead
Laid
Like
Doubt
Gentleman
Whether
Temptation
Upon
False
Christian
Allowed
Father
Brought
Mother
Beginning
Philip
Wells
Trust
Expose

More quotes by W. Somerset Maugham

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It's very hard to be a gentleman and a writer.
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Women's hearts are like old china, none the worse for a break or two.
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There are few things so pleasant as a picnic eaten in perfect comfort.
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Death doesn't affect the living because it has not happened yet. Death doesn't concern the dead because they have ceased to exist.
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The great tragedy of life is not that men perish, but that they cease to love.
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Man has always sacrificed truth to his vanity, comfort and advantage. He lives not by truth but by make-believe.
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It is unsafe to take your reader for more of a fool than he is.
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It is good to be on your guard against an Englishman who speaks French perfectly he is very likely to be a card-sharper or an attache in the diplomatic service.
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It requires the feminine temperament to repeat the same thing three times with unabated zest.
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The audience is not the least important actor in the play and if it will not do its allotted share the play falls to pieces.
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Culture is not just an ornament it is the expression of a nation's character, and at the same time it is a powerful instrument to mould character. The end of culture is right living.
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Genius is talent provided with ideals. Genius starves while talent wears purple and fine linen. The man of genius of today will infifty years' time be in most cases no more than a man of talent.
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She had no mercy. He looked at her neck and thought how he would like to jab it with the knife he had for his muffin. He knew enough anatomy to make pretty certain of getting the carotid artery. And at the same time he wanted to cover her pale, thin face with kisses.
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and he loved her suddenly because she loved him.
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When he sacrifices himself man for a moment is greater than God, for how can God, infinite and omnipotent, sacrifice himself?
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Our natural egoism leads us to judge people by their relations to ourselves. We want them to be certain things to us, and for us that is what they are because the rest of them is no good to us, we ignore it.
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Impropriety is the soul of wit.
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Follow your inclinations with due regard to the policeman round the corner.
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You tend to close your eyes to truth, beauty and goodness because they give no scope to your sense of the ridiculous.
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Women are strange little beasts,' he said to Dr. Coutras. 'You can treat them like dogs, you can beat them till your arm aches, and still they love you.' He shrugged his shoulders. 'Of course, it is one of the most absurd illusions of Christianity that they have souls.
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