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" The writer of prose can only step aside when the poet passes. "

W. Somerset Maugham

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" You can do anything in this world if you are prepared to take the consequences. "

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" Men have an extraordinarily erroneous opinion of their position in nature; and the error is ineradicable. "

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" I can imagine no more comfortable frame of mind for the conduct of life than a humorous resignation. "

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" We know our friends by their defects rather than by their merits. "

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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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" What has influenced my life more than any other single thing has been my stammer. Had I not stammered I would probably... have gone to Cambridge as my brothers did, perhaps have become a don and every now and then published a dreary book about French literature. "

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" I would sooner read a time-table or a catalogue than nothing at all. They are much more entertaining than half the novels that are written. "

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" Only a mediocre person is always at his best. "

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" There are three rules for writing a novel. Unfortunately, no one knows what they are. "

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" What makes old age hard to bear is not the failing of one's faculties, mental and physical, but the burden of one's memories. "

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" The great American novel has not only already been written, it has already been rejected. "

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" There are two good things in life - freedom of thought and freedom of action. "

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" Impropriety is the soul of wit. "

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" The trouble with young writers is that they are all in their sixties. "

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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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" A man marries to have a home, but also because he doesn't want to be bothered with sex and all that sort of thing. "

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" Excess on occasion is exhilarating. It prevents moderation from acquiring the deadening effect of a habit. "

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" I'll give you my opinion of the human race in a nutshell... their heart's in the right place, but their head is a thoroughly inefficient organ. "

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" Tolerance is another word for indifference. "

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" When I read a book I seem to read it with my eyes only, but now and then I come across a passage, perhaps only a phrase, which has a meaning for me, and it becomes part of me. "

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" The world in general doesn't know what to make of originality; it is startled out of its comfortable habits of thought, and its first reaction is one of anger. "

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" If you want to eat well in England, eat three breakfasts. "

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" At a dinner party one should eat wisely but not too well, and talk well but not too wisely. "

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" In Hollywood, the women are all peaches. It makes one long for an apple occasionally. "

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" Have common sense and stick to the point. "

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" The writer is more concerned to know than to judge. "

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" If you don't change your beliefs, your life will be like this forever. Is that good news? "

W. Somerset Maugham

" When you choose your friends, don't be short-changed by choosing personality over character. "

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" When you are young you take the kindness people show you as your right. "

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" Things were easier for the old novelists who saw people all of a piece. Speaking generally, their heroes were good through and through, their villains wholly bad. "

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