Quote

Marco Polo tells the tale of The Old Man in the Mountains and how he recruits new members to his Band of Assassins by means of drugs, beautiful women, lush gardens, and religious promises. The unfortunate thing about this world is that the good habits are much easier to give up than the bad ones.

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
World
Give
Habit
Drugs
Assassins
Women
Band
Tales
Recruit
Giving
Ones
Tells
Gardens
Mean
Easier
Mountain
Tale
Recruits
Thing
Religious
Garden
Promises
Polo
Much
Religion
Drug
Unfortunate
Lush
Good
Means
Members
Mountains
Marco
Men
Beautiful
Promise
Habits
Marcos

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The value of culture is its effect on character. It avails nothing unless it ennobles and strengthens that. Its use is for life. Its aim is not beauty but goodness.
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Sentimentality is the only sentiment that rubs you the wrong way.
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Considering how foolishly people act and how pleasantly they prattle, perhaps it would be better for the world if they talked more and did less.
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The moral I draw is that the writer should seek his reward in the pleasure of his work and in release from the burden of thought and, indifferent to aught else, care nothing for praise or censure, failure or success.
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First, cut out all the wisdom, then cut out all the adjectives.
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Kant thought things, not because they were true, but because he was Kant.
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Marriage is a very good thing, but I think it's a mistake to make a habit out of it.
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Perhaps it would have been possible to see in him a new Prometheus...the hero who for the good of mankind exposes himself to the agonies of the damned...undaunted by failure, by an unceasing effort of courage holding despair at bay, doggedly persistent in the face of self-doubt, which is the artist's bitterest enemy.
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I always find it more difficult to say the things I mean than the things I don't.
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It is salutary to train oneself to be no more affected by censure than by praise.
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Its a toss-up when you decide to leave the beaten track. Many are called, few are chosen.
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I never met an author who admitted that people did not buy his book because it was dull.
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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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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 an illusion that youth is happy, an illusion of those who have lost it.
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It is bad enough to know the past it would be intolerable to know the future.
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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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