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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.
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
Steps
Prose
Beauty
Aim
Literature
Achievement
Sublimest
Ends
Step
Delicacy
Human
Activity
Crown
Humans
Poet
Crowns
Mind
Poetry
Passes
Writer
Aside
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Usage is the only test. I prefer a phrase that is easy and unaffected to a phrase that is grammatical.
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But I am not sure it would contain any short stories. For the short story is a minor art, and it must content itself with moving, exciting and amusing the reader. ...I do not think that there is any (short story) that will give the reader that thrill, that rapture, that fruitful energy which great art can produce.
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In the conduct of life we make use of deliberation to justify ourselves in doing what we want to do.
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It is an illusion that youth is happy, an illusion of those who have lost it.
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There are times when I look over the various parts of my character with perplexity. I recognize that I am made up of several persons and that the person that at the moment has the upper hand will inevitably give place to another. But which is the real one? All of them or none?
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It's a funny thing about life if you refuse to accept anything but the best, you very often get it.
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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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Evil is a necessary part of the order of the universe.
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