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A man who is a politician at forty is a statesman at three score and ten. It is at this age, when he would be too old to be a clerk or a gardener or a police-court magistrate, that he is ripe to govern a country.
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
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Screenwriter
Writer
Paris
France
W. Somerset Maugham
Somerset Maugham
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Ten
Statesman
Would
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Clerks
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Court
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Magistrates
More quotes by W. Somerset Maugham
The highest activities of consciousness have their origins in physical occurrences of the brain, just as the loveliest melodies are not too sublime to be expressed by notes.
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He knew that all things human are transitory and therefore that it must cease one day or another. He looked forward to that day with eager longing. Love was like a parasite in his heart, nourishing a hateful existence on his life's blood it absorbed his existence so intensely that he could take pleasure in nothing else.
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The rain fell alike upon the just and upon the unjust, and for nothing was there a why and a wherefore.
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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.
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Self-control might be as passionate and as active as the surrender to passion.
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The nature of men and women - their essential nature - is so vile and despicable that if you were to portray a person as he really is, no one would believe you.
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To bear failure with courage is the best proof of character that anyone can give.
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We are not the same persons this year as last nor are those we love. It is a happy chance if we, changing, continue to love a changed person.
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People ask for criticism, but they only want praise.
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Remember that it is nothing to do your duty, that is demanded of you and is no more meritorious than to wash your hands when they are dirty the only thing that counts is the love of duty when love and duty are one, then grace is in you and you will enjoy a happiness which passes all understanding.
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A good Havana is one of the best pleasures that I know.
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Insensibly he formed the most delightful habit in the world, the habit of reading: he did not know that thus he was providing himself with a refuge from all the distress of life he did not know either that he was creating for himself an unreal world which would make the real world of every day a source of bitter disappointment.
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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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Tolerance is only another name for indifference.
W. Somerset Maugham
When I was young I was amazed at Plutarch's statement that the elder Cato began at the age of eighty to learn Greek. I am amazed no longer. Old age is ready to undertake tasks that youth shirked because they would take too long.
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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 many foolish people in the world and when a man in a rather high position puts on no frills, slaps them on the back, and tells them he'll do anything in the world for them, they are very likely to think him clever.
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A woman may be as wicked as she likes, but if she isn't pretty it won't do her much good.
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Every production of an artist should be the expression of an adventure of his soul.
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It requires the feminine temperament to repeat the same thing three times with unabated zest.
W. Somerset Maugham
