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W. Somerset Maugham

W. Somerset Maugham Quotes

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Famous W. Somerset Maugham Quotes

“For men and women are not only themselves; they are also the region in which they are born, the city apartment or farm in which they learnt to walk, the games they played as children, the old wives tales they overheard, the food they ate, the schools they attended, the sports they followed, the poets they read, and the God they believed in. It is all these things that have made them what they are, and these are the things that you can't come to know by hearsay.”

KnowsMenChildrenMadeSchoolGamesSportsBornWalksCitiesWifePoetMen And WomenTalesRegionsFarmsApartmentRazorsHearsayOld Wives Tales
Author:W. Somerset Maugham
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“Why should you think that beauty, which is the most precious thing in the world, lies like a stone on the beach for the careless passer-by to pick up idly? Beauty is something wonderful and strange that the artist fashions out of the chaos of the world in the torment of his soul. And when he has made it, it is not given to all to know it. To recognize it you must repeat the adventure of the artist. It is a melody that he sings to you, and to hear it again in your own heart you want knowledge and sensitiveness and imagination.”

ThinkingKnowsWorldWantShouldHeartMadeSoulLyingArtistGivenImaginationWonderfulFashionStrangeAdventurePicksStonesChaosMade ItBeachRepeatsMelodyTormentCarelessPrecious Things
Book:The Essential W. Somerset Maugham Collection
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“I want a girl because I want to bring her up so that she shan't make the mistakes I've made. When I look back upon the girl I was I hate myself. But I never had a chance. I'm going to bring up my daughter so that she's free and can stand on her own feet. I´m not going to bring a child into the world, and love her, and bring her up, just so that some man may want to sleep with her so much that he's willing to provide her with board and lodging for the rest of her life.”

MenWorldWantLooksMayChildrenMadeHateGirlChanceSleepMistakeFeetWillingDaughterAnd LoveI HateBoardsMy DaughterWant To SleepHate MyselfI Hate MyselfWorld And LoveI Want A Girl
Book:The Painted Veil
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“The ballet. I saw in the fugitive beauty of a dancer's gesture a symbol of life. It was achieved at the cost of unending effort but, with all the forces of gravity against it, a fleeting poise in mid-air, a lovely attitude worthy to be made immortal in a bas-relief, it was lost as soon as it was gained and there remained no more than the memory of an exquisite emotion. So life, lived variously and largely, becomes a work of art only when brought to its beautiful conclusion and is reduced to nothingness in the moment when it arrives at perfection.”

ArtMadeMomentsBeautifulLostForceMemoriesEffortEmotionAttitudeSawsAirCostPerfectionDanceWorthyLovelyConclusionSymbolsDancerReliefImmortalWorks Of ArtBalletGravityGesturesNothingnessFleetingExquisiteUnendingFugitivePoise
Author:W. Somerset Maugham
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