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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.
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
Carry
Imposture
Generations
Profited
Young
Rubbed
Time
Earliest
Wiser
Nonsense
Aging
Discovered
More quotes by W. Somerset Maugham
When you are young you take the kindness people show you as your right.
W. Somerset Maugham
Men have ascribed to God imperfections that they would deplore in themselves.
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Do you know that conversation is one of the greatest pleasures in life? But it wants leisure.
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Of all the hokum with which this country [America] is riddled, the most odd is the common notion that it is free of class distinctions.
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Because a man can write great works he is none the less a man.
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I've always been interested in people, but I've never liked them.
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Through the history of the world there have always been exploiters and exploited. There always will be ... because the great mass of men are made by nature to be slaves, they are unfit to control themselves, and for their own good need masters.
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The most useful thing about a principle is that it can always be sacrificed to expediency.
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The first duty of a woman is to be pretty, the second is to be well-groomed, and the third is never to contradict.
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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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One can be very much in love with a woman without wishing to spend the rest of one's life with her.
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I thought it was only in revealed religion that a mistranslation improved the sense.
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She had a pretty gift for quotation, which is a serviceable substitute for wit.
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When she liked anyone it was quite natural for her to go to bed with him. She never thought twice about it. It was not vice it wasn't lasciviousness it was her nature. She gave herself as naturally as the sun gives heat or the flowers their perfume. It was a pleasure to her and she liked to give pleasure to others.
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There is no need for the writer to eat a whole sheep to be able to tell you what mutton tastes like. It is enough if he eats a cutlet. But he should do that.
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Perfect is determined in shortened measures of time, not over long periods of time or lifetimes. It would be unnatural.
W. Somerset Maugham
It is one of the defects of my character that I cannot altogether dislike anyone who makes me laugh.
W. Somerset Maugham
Some of us look for the Way in opium and some in God, some of us in whiskey and some in love. It is all the same Way and it leads nowhither.
W. Somerset Maugham
Follow your inclinations with due regard to the policeman round the corner.
W. Somerset Maugham
Life wouldn’t be worth living if I worried over the future as well as the present. When things are at their worst I find something always happens.
W. Somerset Maugham
