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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
Novelty
Recognize
Surprise
Beauty
Beautiful
Find
Things
Contrariwise
Surprises
More quotes by W. Somerset Maugham
The secret to life is meaningless unless you discover it yourself.
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There is only one thing about which I am certain, and this is that there is very little about which one can be certain
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A man filled with meat turns his back on the dry bones of political doctrine. Fanatical devotion to the ruling party comes more readily from the materially deprived At a dinner party one should eat wisely but not too well, and talk well but not too wisely.
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Money is like a sixth sense without which you cannot make a complete use of the other five.
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Women's hearts are like old china, none the worse for a break or two.
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People who ask for your criticism want only praise.
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Writing is a wholetime job: no professional writer can afford only to write when he feels like it.
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A Unitarian very earnestly disbelieves what everyone else believes.
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Music-hall songs provide the dull with wit, just as proverbs provide them with wisdom.
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Of all these the richest in beauty is the beautiful life. That is the perfect work of art. ~Waddington
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There's nothing the world loves more than a ready-made description which they can hang on to a man, and so save themselves all trouble in future.
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We didn't think much in the air corps of a fellow who wangled a cushy job out of his C.O. by buttering him up. It was hard for me to believe that God thought much of a man who tried to wangle salvation by fulsome flattery. I should have thought the worship most pleasing to him was to do your best according to your lights.
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Never pause unless you have a reason for it, but when you pause, pause as long as you can.
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It is one of the defects of my character that I cannot altogether dislike anyone who makes me laugh.
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The well dressed man is he whose clothes you never notice
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It is unsafe to take your reader for more of a fool than he is.
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Few misfortunes can befall a boy which bring worse consequence than to have a really affectionate mother.
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The great man is too often all of a piece it is the little man that is a bundle of contradictory elements. He is inexhaustible. You never come to the end of the surprises he has in store for you.
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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 am sick of this way of life. The weariness and sadness of old age make it intolerable. I have walked with death in hand, and death's own hand is warmer than my own. I don't wish to live any longer.
W. Somerset Maugham
