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What does democracy come down to? The persuasive power of slogans invented by wily self-seeking politicians.
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
Come
Invented
Self
Politicians
Seeking
Atheism
Politician
Democracy
Wily
Power
Persuasive
Doe
Slogans
More quotes by W. Somerset Maugham
A bird in the hand was worth two in the bush, he told her, to which she retorted that a proverb was the last refuge of the mentally destitute.
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Like all weak men he laid an exaggerated stress on not changing one's mind.
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Beauty is an ecstasy it is as simple as hunger. There is really nothing to be said about it. It is like the perfume of a rose: you can smell it and that is all.
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It is unfair to expect a politician to live in private up to the statements he makes in public.
W. Somerset Maugham
Art, if it is to be reckoned as one of the great values of life, must teach man humility, tolerance, wisdom and magnanimity. The value of art is not beauty, but right action.
W. Somerset Maugham
Simplicity and naturalness are the truest marks of distinction.
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I would sooner read a timetable or a catalog than nothing at all.
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Death is a very dull, dreary affair, and my advice to you is to have nothing whatsoever to do with it.
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No man in his heart is quite so cynical as a well-bred woman.
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I do not confer praise or blame: I accept. I am the measure of all things. I am the center of the world.
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Men have ascribed to God imperfections that they would deplore in themselves.
W. Somerset Maugham
Perfect is determined in shortened measures of time, not over long periods of time or lifetimes. It would be unnatural.
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He knew that all things human are transitory and therefore that it must cease one day or another. He looked forward to that day with eager longing. Love was like a parasite in his heart, nourishing a hateful existence on his life's blood it absorbed his existence so intensely that he could take pleasure in nothing else.
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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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There is only one way to win hearts and that is to make oneself like unto those of whom one would be loved.
W. Somerset Maugham
When she liked anyone it was quite natural for her to go to bed with him. She never thought twice about it. It was not vice it wasn't lasciviousness it was her nature. She gave herself as naturally as the sun gives heat or the flowers their perfume. It was a pleasure to her and she liked to give pleasure to others.
W. Somerset Maugham
If truth is a value it is because it is true and not because it is brave to speak it.
W. Somerset Maugham
Excess on occasion is exhilarating. It prevents moderation from acquiring the deadening effect of a habit.
W. Somerset Maugham
If only the good were a little less heavy-footed
W. Somerset Maugham
Art is a manifestation of emotion, and emotion speaks a language that all may understand.
W. Somerset Maugham
