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It must be that to govern a nation you need a specific talent and that this may very well exist without general ability.
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
Needs
Ability
Government
Govern
May
Specific
Wells
General
Without
Exist
Well
Nation
Need
Talent
Must
Nations
More quotes by W. Somerset Maugham
For my part I cannot believe in a God who is angry with me because I do not believe in him. I cannot believe in a God who is less tolerant than I. I cannot believe in a God who has neither humour nor common sense.
W. Somerset Maugham
Tolerance is another word for indifference.
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There is nothing so terrible as the pursuit of art by those who have no talent.
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For if the proper study of mankind is man, it is evidently more sensible to occupy yourself with the coherent, substantial and significant creatures of fiction than with the irrational and shadowy figures of real life.
W. Somerset Maugham
Only a mediocre person is always at his best.
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Self-control might be as passionate and as active as the surrender to passion.
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It wasn't until late in life that I discovered how easy it is to say, 'I don't know.'
W. Somerset Maugham
It requires the feminine temperament to repeat the same thing three times with unabated zest.
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I never spend more than one hour in a gallery. That is as long as one's power of appreciation persists.
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You tend to close your eyes to truth, beauty and goodness because they give no scope to your sense of the ridiculous.
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D'you call life a bad job? Never! We've had our ups and downs, we've had our struggles, we've always been poor, but it's been worth it, ay, worth it a hundred times I say when I look round at my children.
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When he sacrifices himself man for a moment is greater than God, for how can God, infinite and omnipotent, sacrifice himself?
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To bear failure with courage is the best proof of character that anyone can give.
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A soul is a troublesome possession, and when man developed it he lost the Garden of Eden.
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Culture is not just an ornament it is the expression of a nation's character, and at the same time it is a powerful instrument to mould character. The end of culture is right living.
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I have always been convinced that if a woman once made up her mind to marry a man, nothing but instant flight could save him.
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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 a nuisance that knowledge can only be acquired by hard work.
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
Look after your laundry, and your soul will look after itself.
W. Somerset Maugham
