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We find things beautiful because we recognize them and contrariwise we find things beautiful because their novelty surprises us.
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
Surprise
Beauty
Beautiful
Find
Things
Contrariwise
Surprises
Novelty
Recognize
More quotes by W. Somerset Maugham
It takes two to make a love affair and a mans meat is too often a woman's poison.
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I now, weak, old, diseased, poor, dying, hold still my soul in my hands, and I regret nothing.
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There in the mist, enormous, majestic, silent and terrible, stood the Great Wall of China. Solitarily, with the indifference of nature herself, it crept up the mountain side and slipped down to the depth of the valley.
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Often the best way to overcome desire is to satisfy it.
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No man in his heart is quite so cynical as a well-bred woman.
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To acquire the habit of reading is to construct for yourself a refuge from almost all the miseries of life.
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The average American can get into the kingdom of heaven much more easily than he can get into the Boulevard St. Germain.
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Beauty is an ecstasy it is as simple as hunger. There is really nothing to be said about it. It is like the perfume of a rose: you can smell it and that is all.
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You know, of course, that the Tasmanians, who never committed adultery, are now extinct.
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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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The passing moment is all we can be sure of it is only common sense to extract its utmost value from it.
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The ideas for stories that thronged my brain would not let me rest till I had got rid of them by writing them.
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Excess on occasion is exhilarating. It prevents moderation from acquiring the deadening effect of a habit.
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Truth is not only stranger than fiction, it is more telling. To know that a thing actually happened gives it a poignancy, touches a chord, which a piece of acknowledged fiction misses. It is to touch this chord that some authors have done everything they could to give you the impression that they are telling the plain truth.
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From old habit, unconsciously he thanked God that he no longer believed in Him.
W. Somerset Maugham
It was such a beautiful day I decided to stay in bed.
W. Somerset Maugham
I know that I shall die struggling for breath, and I know that I shall be horribly afraid. I know that I shall not be able to keep myself from regretting bitterly the life that has brought me to such a pass but I disown that regret. I now, weak, old, diseased, poor, dying, hold still my soul in my hands, and I regret nothing.
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Let us develop the resources of our land, call forth its powers, build up its institutions, promote all its great interests, and see whether we also, in our day and generation, may not perform something worthy to be remembered.
W. Somerset Maugham
D'you call life a bad job? Never! We've had our ups and downs, we've had our struggles, we've always been poor, but it's been worth it, ay, worth it a hundred times I say when I look round at my children.
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The great American novel has not only already been written, it has already been rejected.
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