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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
Well
Nation
Need
Talent
Must
Nations
Needs
Ability
Government
Govern
May
Specific
Wells
General
Without
Exist
More quotes by W. Somerset Maugham
Perfection has one grave defect: it is apt to be dull.
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Women are strange little beasts,' he said to Dr. Coutras. 'You can treat them like dogs, you can beat them till your arm aches, and still they love you.' He shrugged his shoulders. 'Of course, it is one of the most absurd illusions of Christianity that they have souls.
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The fact that a great many people believe something is no guarantee of its truth.
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And I have the sunset, and the Tuscan wine, and the white teeth of the women in Rome. I am a traveler in Romance.
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Common-sense appears to be only another name for the thoughtlessness of the unthinking. It is made of the prejudices of childhood, the idiosyncrasies of individual character and the opinion of the newspapers.
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Tradition is a guide and not a jailer.
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If forty million people say a foolish thing it does not become a wise one.
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Any society that values wealth above freedom will lose its freedom, and will ultimately lose its wealth as well
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Usage is the only test. I prefer a phrase that is easy and unaffected to a phrase that is grammatical.
W. Somerset Maugham
She could not admit but that he had remarkable qualities, sometimes she thought that there was even in him a strange and unattractive greatness it was curious then that she could not love him, but loved still a man whose worthlessness was now so clear to her.
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I promised myself that if ever I had some money that I would savor a cigar each day after lunch and dinner. This is the only resolution of my youth that I have kept, and the only realized ambition which has not brought disillusion.
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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?
W. Somerset Maugham
Do you like card tricks? No, I hate card tricks, I answered. Well, I`ll just show you this one. He showed me three.
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You are not angry with people when you laugh at them. Humor teaches tolerance.
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Success. I don't believe it has any effect on me. For one thing I always expected it.
W. Somerset Maugham
When a woman loves you she's not satisfied until she possesses your soul. Because she's weak, she has a rage for domination, and nothing less will satisfy her.
W. Somerset Maugham
I don't think of the past. The only thing that matters is the everlasting present.
W. Somerset Maugham
There are three rules for writing a novel. Unfortunately, no one knows what they are.
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Men have an extraordinarily erroneous opinion of their position in nature and the error is ineradicable.
W. Somerset Maugham
It is unfair to expect a politician to live in private up to the statements he makes in public.
W. Somerset Maugham
