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The essential element of love is a belief in its own eternity.
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
Love
Element
Essential
Essentials
Eternity
Elements
Belief
More quotes by W. Somerset Maugham
The great trues are too important to be new.
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Perhaps it would have been possible to see in him a new Prometheus...the hero who for the good of mankind exposes himself to the agonies of the damned...undaunted by failure, by an unceasing effort of courage holding despair at bay, doggedly persistent in the face of self-doubt, which is the artist's bitterest enemy.
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Do you absolutely despise me, Walter? No. He hesitated and his voice was strange. I despise myself.
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I know that you're selfish, selfish beyond words, and I know that you haven't the nerve of a rabbit, I know you're a liar and a humbug, I know that you're utterly contemptible. And the tragic part is'--her face was on a sudden distraught with pain--'the tragic part is that notwithstanding I love you with all my heart.
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Impropriety is the soul of wit.
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You cannot write well or much (and I venture the opinion that you cannot write well unless you write much) unless you form a habit.
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Excess on occasion is exhilarating. It prevents moderation from acquiring the deadening effect of a habit.
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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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You know what the critics are. If you tell the truth they only say you're cynical and it does an author no good to get a reputation for cynicism.
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The essence of the beautiful is unity in variety.
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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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The officers saluted as she passed and gravely bowed. They walked back across the courtyard and got into their chairs. She saw Waddington light a cigarette. A little smoke lost in the air, that was the life of a man.
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A good style should show no signs of effort. What is written should seem a happy accident.
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Unconsciously, perhaps, we treasure the power we have over people by their regard for our opinion of them, and we hate those upon whom we have no such influence.
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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
People are always a little disconcerted when you don't recognize them, they are so important to themselves, it is a shock to discover of what small importance they are to others. [The human element]
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When you choose your friends, don't be short-changed by choosing personality over character.
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The ideas for stories that thronged my brain would not let me rest till I had got rid of them by writing them.
W. Somerset Maugham
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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The secret to life is meaningless unless you discover it yourself.
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