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It is good to be on your guard against an Englishman who speaks French perfectly he is very likely to be a card-sharper or an attache in the diplomatic service.
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
Good
Guard
Speaks
French
Perfectly
Sharper
Cards
Englishman
Likely
Diplomatic
Service
Englishmen
Speak
Card
More quotes by W. Somerset Maugham
A writer need not devour a whole sheep in order to know what mutton tastes like, but he must at least eat a chop. Unless he gets his facts right, his imagination will lead him into all kinds of nonsense, and the facts he is most likely to get right are the facts of his own experience.
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The essence of the beautiful is unity in variety.
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It is not wealth one asks for, but just enough to preserve one's dignity, to work unhampered, to be generous, frank and independent.
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You will have to learn many tedious things,...which you will forget the moment you have passed your final examination, but in anatomy it is better to have learned and lost than never to have learned at all.
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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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No egoism is so insufferable as that of the Christian with regard to his soul.
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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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The artist produces for the liberation of his soul.
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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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Words have weight, sound and appearance it is only by considering these that you can write a sentence that is good to look at and good to listen to.
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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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Tradition is a guide and not a jailer.
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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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What mean and cruel things men can do for the love of God.
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An author spends months writing a book, and maybe puts his heart's blood into it, and then it lies about unread till the reader has nothing else in the world to do.
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It needs a good deal of philosophy not to be mortified by the thought of persons who have voluntarily abandoned everything that for the most of us makes life worth living and are devoid of envy of what they have missed. I have never made up my mind whether they are fools or wise men.
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The last words he said to me when I bade him good-night were: Tell Amy it's no good coming after me. Anyhow, I shall change my hotel, so she wouldn't be able to find me.' My own impression is that she's well rid of you,' I said. My dear fellow, I only hope you'll be able to make her see it. But women are very unintelligent.
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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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Life is so largely controlled by chance that its conduct can be but a perpetual improvisation.
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We can none of us step into the same river twice, but the river flows on and the other river we step into is cool and refreshing, too
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