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Our natural egoism leads us to judge people by their relations to ourselves. We want them to be certain things to us, and for us that is what they are because the rest of them is no good to us, we ignore it.
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
Natural
Egoism
Certain
Relations
Good
Ignore
Things
Leads
People
Judge
Relation
Judging
Rest
More quotes by W. Somerset Maugham
Love is only a dirty trick played on us to achieve continuation of the species.
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Of all the hokum with which this country [America] is riddled, the most odd is the common notion that it is free of class distinctions.
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The moral I draw is that the writer should seek his reward in the pleasure of his work and in release from the burden of thought and, indifferent to aught else, care nothing for praise or censure, failure or success.
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In the country the darkness of night is friendly and familiar, but in a city, with its blaze of lights, it is unnatural, hostile and menacing. It is like a monstrous vulture that hovers, biding its time.
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A woman can forgive a man for the harm he does her...but she can never forgive him for the sacrifices he makes on her account.
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It is not for nothing that artists have called their works the children of their brains and likened the pains of production to the pains of childbirth.
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Loving-kindness is the better part of goodness.
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Are you sure you can prevent yourself from falling in love one of these days? Such things do happen, you know, even to the most prudent men.' Simon gave him a strange, one might even have thought a hostile, look. I should tear it out of my heart as I'd wrench out of my mouth a rotten tooth.
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The artist can within limits make what he likes of his life... It is only the artist, and maybe the criminal, who can make his own.
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Excess on occasion is exhilarating. It prevents moderation from acquiring the deadening effect of a habit. It's a funny thing about life if you refuse to accept anything but the best, you very often get it. Like all weak men he laid an exaggerated stress on not changing one's mind.
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The trouble with young writers is that they are all in their sixties.
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It is unfair to expect a politician to live in private up to the statements he makes in public.
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A dictator must fool all the people all the time and there's only one way to do that, he must also fool himself.
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Look after your laundry, and your soul will look after itself.
W. Somerset Maugham
The only important thing in a book is the meaning that it has for you.
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There is no need for the writer to eat a whole sheep to be able to tell you what mutton tastes like. It is enough if he eats a cutlet. But he should do that.
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It's very hard to be a gentleman and a writer.
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You are not angry with people when you laugh at them. Humor teaches tolerance.
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Because women can do nothing except love, they've given it a ridiculous importance. They want to persuade us that it's the whole of life. It's an insignificant part.
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The worst of having so much tact was that you never quite knew whether other people were acting naturally or being tactful too. [The human element]
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