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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
Government
Govern
May
Specific
Wells
General
Without
Exist
Well
Nation
Need
Talent
Must
Nations
Needs
Ability
More quotes by W. Somerset Maugham
A good style should show no signs of effort. What is written should seem a happy accident.
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Common sense and nature will do a lot to make the pilgrimage of life not too difficult.
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He found that it was easy to make a heroic gesture, but hard to abide by its results.
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You've been brought up like a gentleman and a Christian, and I should be false to the trust laid upon me by your dead father and mother if I allowed you to expose yourself to such temptation.' Well, I know I'm not a Christian and I'm beginning to doubt whether I'm a gentleman,' said Philip.
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No egoism is so insufferable as that of the Christian with regard to his soul.
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Death doesn't affect the living because it has not happened yet. Death doesn't concern the dead because they have ceased to exist.
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The audience is a very curious animal. It is shrewd rather than intelligent. Its mental capacity is less than that of its most intellectual members.
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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.
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Some American delusions: 1) That there is no class-consciousness in the country. 2) That American coffee is good. 3) That Americans are business-like. 4) That Americans are highly-sexed and that redheads are more highly sexed than others.
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I'm only twenty-five. If I've made a mistake I have time to correct it.
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An art is only great and significant if it is one that all may enjoy. The art of a clique is but a plaything.
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An unfortunate thing about this world is that the good habits are much easier to give up than the bad ones.
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Never pause unless you have a reason for it, but when you pause, pause as long as you can.
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The ideal has many names, and beauty is but one of them.
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The crown of literature is poetry.
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Old age has its pleasures, which, though different, are not less than the pleasures of youth.
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There is no object to life. To nature nothing matters but the continuation of the species.
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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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When you are young you take the kindness people show you as your right.
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