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A good rule for writers: do not explain overmuch.
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
Overmuch
Explain
Rule
Writers
Writing
More quotes by W. Somerset Maugham
No affectation of peculiarity can conceal a commonplace mind.
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I know that I shall die struggling for breath, and I know that I shall be horribly afraid. I know that I shall not be able to keep myself from regretting bitterly the life that has brought me to such a pass but I disown that regret. I now, weak, old, diseased, poor, dying, hold still my soul in my hands, and I regret nothing.
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As if a woman ever loved a man for his virtue.
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There's nothing the world loves more than a ready-made description which they can hang on to a man, and so save themselves all trouble in future.
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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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One can be very much in love with a woman without wishing to spend the rest of one's life with her.
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We are not the same persons this year as last nor are those we love. It is a happy chance if we, changing, continue to love a changed person.
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The only important thing in a book is the meaning that it has for you.
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Men have ascribed to God imperfections that they would deplore in themselves.
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There in the mist, enormous, majestic, silent and terrible, stood the Great Wall of China. Solitarily, with the indifference of nature herself, it crept up the mountain side and slipped down to the depth of the valley.
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When things are at their worst, I find something always happens.
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It is not true that suffering ennobles the character happiness does that sometimes, but suffering for the most part, makes men petty and vindictive.
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Tolerance is another word for indifference.
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Art should be appreciated with passion and violence, not with a tepid, depreciating elegance that fears the censoriousness of a common room.
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I prefer a loose woman to a selfish one and a wanton to a fool.
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The subjunctive mood is in its death throes, and the best thing to do is to put it out of its misery as soon as possible.
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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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Man's desire for the approval of his fellows is so strong, his dread of their censure so violent, that he himself has brought his enemy (conscience) within his gates and it keeps watch over him, vigilant always in the interests of its master to crush any half-formed desire to break away from the herd.
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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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The secret to life is meaningless unless you discover it yourself.
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