Both are worth watching. The great American novel has not only already been written, it has already been rejected. I saw the old movie (1946) when I was a kid and that made me look up the book and read it. It is not true that suffering ennobles the character; happiness does that sometimes, but suffering for the most part, makes men petty and vindictive. ', 'To acquire the habit of reading is to construct for yourself a refuge from almost all the miseries of life. How To Accomplish Your Goals When Everything Seems Impossible. The Razor’s Edge is quite similar to T. S. Eliot’s The Cocktail Party (pr. Unfortunately, no one knows what they are. We have long passed the Victorian Era when asterisks were followed after a certain interval by a baby.

It is a happy chance if we, changing, continue to love a changed person.“, „A god that can be understood is not a god.“, „Nothing in the world is permanent, and we're foolish when we ask anything to last, but surely we're still more foolish not to take delight in it while we have it.“, „Beauty is an ecstasy; it is as simple as hunger. 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. If a nation values anything more than freedom, it will lose its freedom, and the irony of it is that if it is comfort or money that it values more, it will lose that too. Ch. You demand unselfishness from others, which is a preposterous claim that they should sacrifice their desires to yours.
W. Somerset Maugham . Any nation that thinks more of its ease and comfort than its freedom will soon lose its freedom; and the ironical thing about it is that it will lose its ease and comfort too. The novel is concerned in large part with the search for the meaning of life and with the dichotomy between materialism and spirituality. He wrote more than twenty novels such as Of Human Bondage which is a semi-autobiographical account of a medical student, The Moon and Sixpense which is about the life of an unconventional artist, Cakes and Ale which is about of a famous novelist and The Razor’s Edge (1944) which tells the story of an American war veteran’s quest for a satisfying way of life. W. Somerset Maugham . Humour teaches tolerance, and the humorist, with a smile and perhaps a sigh, is more likely to shrug his shoulders than to condemn.“, „Almost all the people who have had most effect on me I seem to have met by chance.“, „There is a sort of man who pays no attention to his good actions, but is tormented by his bad ones. Maugham is not surprised to hear about this. Birthdate: 1874Date of death: 1965Other names: Уильям Сомерсет Моэм. “There are three rules for writing a novel. In the country the darkness of night is friendly and familiar, but in a city, with its blaze of lights, it is unnatural, hostile and menacing. Source: Of Human Bondage (1915), Ch.
I knew how frightened you were of intelligence and I did everything I could to make you think me as big a fool as the rest of the men you knew. It is an illusion that youth is happy, an illusion of those who have lost it. 58, p. 213, —  W. Somerset Maugham, book The Summing Up. Press Esc to cancel. ”, “When a woman loves you she's not satisfied until she possesses your soul. Just a moment while we sign you in to your Goodreads account. Like Maugham, he arrives with his shoes on, but is not told to take them off. Discover interesting quotes and translate them. The writer of prose can only step aside when the poet passes. It’s very hard to be a gentleman and a writer. We are not the same persons this year as last; nor are those we love. It is not wealth one asks for, but just enough to preserve one's dignity, to work unhampered, to be generous, frank, and independent. — W. Somerset Maugham, book The Razor's Edge.

What has influenced my life more than any other single thing has been my stammer. It looks as if they were victims of a conspiracy; for the books they read, ideal by the necessity of selection, and the conversation of their elders, who look back upon the past through a rosy haze of forgetfulness, prepare them for an unreal life. I loved you so much, I didn't care. The writer is more concerned to know than to judge.

Enjoy the best W. Somerset Maugham Quotes at BrainyQuote. During the First World War, he served with the Red Cross and in the ambulance corps before being recruited in 1916 into the British Secret Intelligence Service, for which he worked in Switzerland and Russia before the October Revolution of 1917. Only a mediocre person is always at his best. I wasn't like that. They do not know how mean it makes you. W. Somerset Maugham has written many classics, but this one could also be called a book of philosophy. 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.”, “One can be very much in love with a woman without wishing to spend the rest of one's life with her.”, “Some of us look for the Way in opium and some in God, some of us in whiskey and some in love. It's comic when I think how hard I tried to be amused by the things that amused you and how anxious I was to hide from you that I wasn't ignorant and vulgar and scandal-mongering and stupid. Sentimentality is the only sentiment that rubs you the wrong way. He did not want to become a lawyer like other men in his family, so he trained and qualified as a physician. Old age has its pleasures, which, though different, are not less than the pleasures of youth. The great American novel has not only already been written, it has already been rejected. Source: Cakes and Ale: Or, The Skeleton in the Cupboard (1930), p. You can do anything in this world if you are prepared to take the consequences. Let us develop the resources of our land, call forth its powers, build up its institutions, promote all its great interests, and see whether we also, in our day and generation, may not perform something worthy to be remembered. 51Context: You will hear people say that poverty is the best spur to the artist. That is the perfect work of art.”, “People ask you for criticism, but they only want praise.”, “It’s a very funny thing about life; if you refuse to accept anything but the best, you very often get it.”, “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. Speaking generally, their heroes were good through and through, their villains wholly bad. It must be looked upon as a necessary part of the order of the universe. It is his nature to create as it is the nature of water to run down the hill. It’s painful for both sides. It is not wealth one asks for, but just enough to preserve one’s dignity, to work unhampered, to be generous, frank and independent. The fact is, one grows out of people, and the only thing is to face it. There is really nothing to be said about it. The novel was adapted into a movie in 2007 by John Curran. This website or its third-party tools use cookies to improve your user experience.

The world is quickly bored by the recital of misfortune, and willing avoids the sight of distress.