Background Image
...
She Says It's Really Not Very Flattering To Her That The Women Who Fall In Love With Her Husband Are So Uncommonly Second-rate.
-W. Somerset Maugham
...
Please Wait....
Translating....

She Says It's Really

W. Somerset Maugham
...
She Says It's Really Not Very Flattering To Her That The Women Who Fall In Love With Her Husband Are So Uncommonly Second-rate.

Understanding the Quote: "she says it's really not very flattering to her that the women..."

This quote by W. Somerset Maugham reflects deeply on the theme of falling in love. It connects to the universal human journey of purpose, motivation, and reflection. Often categorized under Falling In Love, Husband, Rate, the quote offers insight, emotional clarity, and intellectual inspiration to readers worldwide.

Whether you’re a student exploring new ideas, a leader trying to motivate your team, or someone seeking direction in life — this quote provides value. It resonates because it’s more than words — it’s a bridge between experience and wisdom. It shows how W. Somerset Maugham interprets life's core challenges and triumphs.

Lessons From the Quote

This quote teaches resilience and focus. It reminds readers that no matter where they stand in life, reflection and self-awareness lead to growth. Each word has meaning, and when studied, it becomes clear how impactful thoughtful language can be.

About W. Somerset Maugham

W. Somerset Maugham is celebrated for insightful thoughts on falling in love and husband. Their legacy lives on through writings that guide, comfort, and inspire. Discover more on their profile page.

Actionable Takeaways

  • Reflect on how this quote applies to your current life path.
  • Share the message with someone who needs inspiration.
  • Write your thoughts on this quote in a journal or blog post.
  • Use it as a daily affirmation or reminder.

Closing Thoughts

Quotes like this endure because they capture universal truths. They comfort us in solitude and empower us in groups. Carry this quote forward — live by its wisdom, share its message, and keep its essence alive.

Views: 8
Topic
Falling In Love
Husband
Rate
More From W. Somerset Maugham
I Am Told That Today Rather More Than 60 Per Cent Of The Men Who Go To University Go On A Government Grant. This Is A New Class That Has Entered Upon The Scene. It Is The White-collar Proletariat. They Do Not Go To University To Acquire Culture But To Get A Job, And When They Have Got One, Scamp It. They Have No Manners And Are Woefully Unable To Deal With Any Social Predicament. Their Idea Of A Celebration Is To Go To A Public House And Drink Six Beers. They Are Mean, Malicious And Envious . They Are Scum.
Jobs
Mean
Beer
There Is No Need For The Writer To Eat A Whole Sheep To Be Able To Tell You What Mutton Tastes Like. It Is Enough If He Eats A Cutlet. But He Should Do That.
Sheep
Needs
Able
There Was Once A Professor Of Law Who Said To His Students. When You Are Fighting A Case, If You Have Facts On Your Side Hammer Them Into The Jury, And If You Have The Law On Your Side Hammer It Into The Judge. But If You Have Neither The Facts Nor The Law, Asked One Of His Listeners? Then Hammer The Hell Into The Table, Answered The Professor.
Fighting
Your Side
Law
I Think I Was A Little Disappointed In Her. I Expected Then People To Be More Of A Piece Than I Do Now, And I Was Distressed To Find So Much Vindictiveness In So Charming A Creature. I Did Not Realize How Motley Are The Qualities That Go To Make Up A Human Being. Now I Am Well Aware That Pettiness And Grandeur, Malice And Charity, Hatred And Love, Can Find Place Side By Side In The Same Human Heart.
Heart
Thinking
People
Death Doesn't Affect The Living Because It Has Not Happened Yet. Death Doesn't Concern The Dead Because They Have Ceased To Exist.
Inspirational
Life
Death
Now The Answer ... Is Plain, But It Is So Unpalatable That Most Men Will Not Face It. There Is No Reason For Life And Life Has No Meaning.
Men
Atheism
Answers
Words Have Weight, Sound And Appearance; It Is Only By Considering These That You Can Write A Sentence That Is Good To Look At And Good To Listen To.
Writing
Sound
Looks
No Egoism Is So Insufferable As That Of The Christian With Regard To His Soul.
Christian
Soul
Atheism
A Mother Only Does Her Children Harm If She Makes Them The Only Concern Of Her Life.
Mother
Children
Doe
It Has Amazed Me That The Most Incongruous Traits Should Exist In The Same Person And, For All That, Yield A Plausible Harmony.
Character
Yield
Harmony
For If The Proper Study Of Mankind Is Man, It Is Evidently More Sensible To Occupy Yourself With The Coherent, Substantial And Significant Creatures Of Fiction Than With The Irrational And Shadowy Figures Of Real Life.
Real
Men
Occupy Yourself
They Say A Woman Always Remembers Her First Lover With Affection; But Perhaps She Does Not Always Remember Him.
Doe
Firsts
Lovers
In Hollywood, The Women Are All Peaches. It Makes One Long For An Apple Occasionally.
Apples
Long
Hollywood
It's No Use Crying Over Spilt Milk, Because All Of The Forces Of The Universe Were Bent On Spilling It.
Use
Milk
Cry
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.
Writing
I Daresay One Profits More By The Mistakes One Makes Off One's Own Bat Than By Doing The Right Thing On Somebody's Else Advice.
Mistake
Advice
Bats
We Can None Of Us Step Into The Same River Twice, But The River Flows On And The Other River We Step Into Is Cool And Refreshing, Too
Rivers
Flow
Steps
A Writer Need Not Devour A Whole Sheep In Order To Know What Mutton Tastes Like, But He Must At Least Eat A Chop. Unless He Gets His Facts Right, His Imagination Will Lead Him Into All Kinds Of Nonsense, And The Facts He Is Most Likely To Get Right Are The Facts Of His Own Experience.
Sheep
Order
Imagination
Simplicity And Naturalness Are The Truest Marks Of Distinction.
Simplicity
Distinction
Mark
Sentimentality Is The Only Sentiment That Rubs You The Wrong Way.
Way
Sentimental
Sentiments
A Unitarian Very Earnestly Disbelieves What Everyone Else Believes.
Believe
Religion
Unitarian
The Humorist Has A Good Eye For The Humbug; He Does Not Always Recognize The Saint.
Humor
Eye
Doe
Affection Is Created By Habit, Community Of Interests, Convenience And The Desire Of Companionship. It Is A Comfort Rather Than An Exhilaration.
Community
Desire
Comfort
Women Are Often Under The Impression That Men Are Much More Madly In Love With Them Than They Really Are.
Love
Men
Madly In Love
I Do Not Confer Praise Or Blame: I Accept. I Am The Measure Of All Things. I Am The Center Of The World.
Acceptance
World
Blame
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.
Freedom
Patriotic
Libertarian Party
I Prefer A Loose Woman To A Selfish One And A Wanton To A Fool.
Selfish
Fool
Loose Women
Sometimes A Man Hits Upon A Place To Which He Mysteriously Feels That He Belongs.
Men
Association
Sometimes
For My Part I Cannot Believe In A God Who Is Angry With Me Because I Do Not Believe In Him. I Cannot Believe In A God Who Is Less Tolerant Than I. I Cannot Believe In A God Who Has Neither Humour Nor Common Sense.
Atheist
Believe
Common Sense
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.
Beauty
Simple
Smell
The Important Thing Was To Love Rather Than To Be Loved.
Love
Life
Important
No Man In His Heart Is Quite So Cynical As A Well-bred Woman.
Heart
Men
Cynical
Women Are Constantly Trying To Commit Suicide For Love, But Generally They Take Care Not To Succeed.
Suicide
Trying
Care
All Important Persons Have About Them Someone In A Subordinate Position Who Has Their Ear. These Dependents Are Very Susceptible To Slights, And, When They Are Not Treated As They Think They Should Be, Will By Well-directed Shafts, Constantly Repeated, Poison The Minds Of Their Patrons Against Those Who Have Provoked Their Animosity. It Is Well To Keep In With Them.
Thinking
Mind
Important
If People Waited To Know One Another Before They Married, The World Wouldn't Be As Overpopulated As It Is Now.
Wisdom
People
Intelligence
You See, Money To You Means Freedom; To Me It Means Bondage.
Mean
Bondage
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]
People
Important
Elements
Do You Know That Conversation Is One Of The Greatest Pleasures In Life? But It Wants Leisure.
Life
Want
Leisure
I Would Sooner Read A Timetable Or A Catalog Than Nothing At All.
Funny
Book
Reading
A Man Filled With Meat Turns His Back On The Dry Bones Of Political Doctrine. Fanatical Devotion To The Ruling Party Comes More Readily From The Materially Deprived At A Dinner Party One Should Eat Wisely But Not Too Well, And Talk Well But Not Too Wisely.
Party
Men
Dry Bones
She’s Wonderful. Tell Her I’ve Never Seen Such Beautiful Hands. I Wonder What She Sees In You.” Waddington, Smiling, Translated The Question. “she Says I’m Good.” “as If A Woman Ever Loved A Man For His Virtue,” Kitty Mocked.
Beautiful
Men
Hands
Because A Man Can Write Great Works He Is None The Less A Man.
Writing
Greatness
Men
People Ask For Criticism, But They Only Want Praise.
People
Envy
Gossip
When I Was Young I Had An Elderly Friend Who Used Often To Ask Me To Stay With Him In The Country. He Was A Religious Man And He Read Prayers To The Assembled Household Every Morning. But He Had Crossed Out In Pencil All The Passages That Praised God. He Said That There Was Nothing So Vulgar As To Praise People To Their Faces And, Himself A Gentleman, He Could Not Believe That God Was So Ungentlemanly As To Like It.
Country
Religious
Morning
Perfection Has One Grave Defect: It Is Apt To Be Dull.
Humility
Perfection
Dull
Truth Is Not Only Stranger Than Fiction, It Is More Telling. To Know That A Thing Actually Happened Gives It A Poignancy, Touches A Chord, Which A Piece Of Acknowledged Fiction Misses. It Is To Touch This Chord That Some Authors Have Done Everything They Could To Give You The Impression That They Are Telling The Plain Truth.
Giving
Missing
Fiction
I've Always Been Interested In People, But I've Never Liked Them.
Funny
People
Literature
Imagination Grows By Exercise, And Contrary To Common Belief, Is More Powerful In The Mature Than In The Young.
Powerful
Writing
Creativity
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.
Funny
Sex
Humorous
There Are Three Rules For Writing A Novel. Unfortunately, No One Knows What They Are.
Writing
Real Talk
Story Writers
I Know That I Shall Die Struggling For Breath, And I Know That I Shall Be Horribly Afraid. I Know That I Shall Not Be Able To Keep Myself From Regretting Bitterly The Life That Has Brought Me To Such A Pass; But I Disown That Regret. I Now, Weak, Old, Diseased, Poor, Dying, Hold Still My Soul In My Hands, And I Regret Nothing.
Regret
Struggle
Hands
The Complete Life, The Perfect Pattern, Includes Old Age As Well As Youth And Maturity. The Beauty Of The Morning And The Radiance Of Noon Are Good, But It Would Be A Very Silly Person Who Drew The Curtains And Turned On The Light In Order To Shut Out The Tranquillity Of The Evening. Old Age Has Its Pleasures, Which, Though Different, Are Not Less Than The Pleasures Of Youth.
Beauty
Morning
Silly
You Europeans Know Nothing About America. Because We Amass Large Fortunes You Think We Care For Nothing But Money. We Are Nothing For It; The Moment We Have It We Spend It, Sometimes Well, Sometimes Ill, But We Spend It. Money Is Nothing To Us; It's Merely The Symbol Of Success. We Are The Greatest Idealists In The World; I Happen To Think That We've Set Our Ideal On The Wrong Objects; I Happen To Think That The Greatest Ideal Man Can Set Before Himself Is Self-perfection.
Men
Thinking
America
You Will Find As You Grow Older That The First Thing Needful To Make The World A Tolerable Place To Live In Is To Recognize The Inevitable Selfishness Of Humanity. You Demand Unselfishness From Others, Which Is A Preposterous Claim That They Should Sacrifice Their Desires To Yours. Why Should They? When You Are Reconciled To The Fact That Each Is For Himself In The World You Will Ask Less From Your Fellows. They Will Not Disappoint You, And You Will Look Upon Them More Charitably. Men Seek But One Thing In Life -- Their Pleasure.
Sacrifice
Men
Things In Life
The Inclination To Digress Is Human. But The Dramatist Must Avoid It Even More Strenuously Than The Saint Must Avoid Sin, For While Sin May Be Venial, Digression Is Mortal.
Saint
May
Sin
I Could Have Forgiven It If He'd Fallen Desperately In Love With Someone And Gone Off With Her. I Should Have Thought That Natural. I Shouldn't Really Have Blamed Him. I Should Have Thought He Was Led Away. Men Are So Weak, And Women Are So Unscrupulous.
Men
Should Have
Gone
In Civilized Communities Men's Idiosyncrasies Are Mitigated By The Necessity Of Conforming To Certain Rules Of Behavior. Culture Is A Mask That Hides Their Faces.
Men
Community
Culture
There Is No More Merit In Being Able To Attach A Correct Description To A Picture Than In Being Able To Find Out What Is Wrong With A Stalled Motorcar. In Each Case It Is Special Knowledge.
Knowledge
Special
Able
It Is Not Wealth One Asks For, But Just Enough To Preserve One's Dignity, To Work Unhampered, To Be Generous, Frank And Independent.
Independent
Dignity Of Work
Wealth
I Wish I Could Make You See How Much Fuller The Life I Offer You Is Than Anything You Have A Conception Of. I Wish I Could Make You See How Exciting The Life Of The Spirit Is And How Rich In Experience. It's Illimitable. It's Such A Happy Life. There's Only One Thing Like It, When You're Up In A Plane By Yourself, High, High, And Only Infinity Surrounds You. You're Intoxicated By The Boundless Space.
Happy Life
Space
Wish
There Is Nothing So Degrading As The Constant Anxiety About One's Means Of Livelihood.
Mean
Anxiety
Human Bondage
The Average American Can Get Into The Kingdom Of Heaven Much More Easily Than He Can Get Into The Boulevard St. Germain.
Fashion
Average
Heaven
You Are Not Angry With People When You Laugh At Them. Humor Teaches Tolerance.
Laughter
Humor
People
From The Earliest Time The Old Have Rubbed It Into The Young That They Are Wiser, And Before The Young Had Discovered What Nonsense This Was They Were Old Too, And It Profited Them To Carry On The Imposture.
Generations
Aging
Nonsense
Some People Read For Instruction, Which Is Praiseworthy, And Some For Pleasure, Which Is Innocent, But Not A Few Read From Habit, And I Suppose That This Is Neither Innocent Or Praiseworthy. Of That Lamentable Company Am I. Conversation After A Time Bores Me, Games Tire Me And My Own Thoughts, Which We Are Told Are The Unfailing Resource Of A Sensible Man, Have A Tendency To Run Dry. Then I Fly To My Book As The Opium-smoker To His Pipe.
Running
Book
Men
Loving-kindness Is The Better Part Of Goodness. It Lends Grace To The Sterner Qualities Of Which This Consists.
Kindness
Grace
Quality
There Are Directors Who Desire To Be Artistic. It Is Pathetic To Compare The Seriousness Of Their Aim With The Absurdity Of Their Attainment.
Desire
Directors
Artistic
I Now, Weak, Old, Diseased, Poor, Dying, Hold Still My Soul In My Hands, And I Regret Nothing.
Regret
Hands
Soul
The Secret Of Play-writing Can Be Given In Two Maxims: Stick To The Point, And, Whenever You Can, Cut.
Writing
Cutting
Play
But I Am Not Sure It Would Contain Any Short Stories. For The Short Story Is A Minor Art, And It Must Content Itself With Moving, Exciting And Amusing The Reader. ...i Do Not Think That There Is Any (short Story) That Will Give The Reader That Thrill, That Rapture, That Fruitful Energy Which Great Art Can Produce.
Art
Moving
Thinking
I Do Not Think You Want Too Much Sincerity In Society. It Would Be Like An Iron Girder In A House Of Cards.
Thinking
House Of Cards
Iron
Death Is A Very Dull, Dreary Affair, And My Advice To You Is To Have Nothing Whatsoever To Do With It.
Inspirational
Funny
Death
We Do Not Write As We Want, But As We Can.
Inspirational
Life
Beautiful
This Love Was A Torment, And He Resented Bitterly The Subjugation In Which It Held Him; He Was A Prisoner And He Longed For Freedom. Sometimes He Awoke In The Morning And Felt Nothing; His Soul Leaped, For He Thought He Was Free; He Loved No Longer; But In A Little While, As He Grew Wide Awake, The Pain Settled In His Heart, And He Knew That He Was Not Cured Yet.
Morning
Pain
Heart
I Knew That Suffering Did Not Enoble; It Degraded. It Made Men Selfish, Petty And Suspicious. It Absorbed Them In Small Things...it Made Them Less Than Men; And I Wrote Ferociously That We Learn Resignation Not By Our Own Suffering, But By The Suffering Of Others.
Selfish
Men
Suffering Of Others
The Essential Element Of Love Is A Belief In Its Own Eternity.
Love Is
Elements
Essentials
A Good Style Should Show No Signs Of Effort. What Is Written Should Seem A Happy Accident.
Writing
Effort
Style
We Have Long Passed The Victorian Era When Asterisks Were Followed After A Certain Interval By A Baby.
Baby
Long
Eras
We Know Our Friends By Their Defects Rather Than By Their Merits.
Inspirational
Life
Friendship
All The Words I Use In My Stories Can Be Found In The Dictionary-it's Just A Matter Of Arranging Them Into The Right Sentences.
Writing
Matter
Story Writers
The Great Critic … Must Be A Philosopher, For From Philosophy He Will Learn Serenity, Impartiality, And The Transitoriness Of Human Things.
Philosophy
Serenity
Philosopher
Writing Is A Wholetime Job: No Professional Writer Can Afford Only To Write When He Feels Like It.
Jobs
Writing
Feels
The Essence Of The Beautiful Is Unity In Variety.
Beautiful
Wise
Wisdom
There Is No Cruelty Greater Than A Woman's To A Man Who Loves Her And Whom She Does Not Love; She Has No Kindness Then, No Tolerance Even, She Has Only An Insane Irritation.
Kindness
Men
Irritation
Life Wouldn’t Be Worth Living If I Worried Over The Future As Well As The Present. When Things Are At Their Worst I Find Something Always Happens.
Worried
Human Bondage
Worst
The Writer Is More Concerned To Know Than To Judge.
Writing
Judging
Concerned
The Almighty Can Hardly Be Such A Fool As The Churches Make Out.
God
Church
Fool
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.
Art
Humility
Men
If You Can Tell Stories, Create Characters, Devise Incidents, And Have Sincerity And Passion, It Doesn't Matter A Damn How You Write.
Writing
Character
Passion
Man's Desire For The Approval Of His Fellows Is So Strong, His Dread Of Their Censure So Violent, That He Himself Has Brought His Enemy (conscience) Within His Gates; And It Keeps Watch Over Him, Vigilant Always In The Interests Of Its Master To Crush Any Half-formed Desire To Break Away From The Herd.
Crush
Strong
Men
People Talk Of Beauty Lightly, And Having No Feeling For Words, They Use That One Carelessly, So That It Loses Its Force; And The Thing It Stands For, Sharing Its Name With A Hundred Trivial Objects, Is Deprived Of Dignity. They Call Beautiful A Dress, A Dog, A Sermon; And When They Are Face To Face With Beauty Cannot Recognise It.
Beautiful
Dog
Names
The Dead Look So Terribly Dead When They're Dead.
Looks
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.
Misery
Mood
Things To Do
The Tragedy Of Love Is Indifference.
Love
Life
Tragedy
He Did Not Care Upon What Terms He Satisfied His Passion. He Had Even A Mad, Melodramatic Idea To Drug Her.
Passion
Ideas
Mad
The Normal Is What You Find But Rarely. The Normal Is An Ideal. It Is A Picture That One Fabricates Of The Average Characteristics Of Men, And To Find Them All In A Single Man Is Hardly To Be Expected.
Character
Men
Average
He Found That It Was Easy To Make A Heroic Gesture, But Hard To Abide By Its Results.
Gestures
Heroic
Easy
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.
Heart
Blood
One Day
She Loved Three Things — A Joke, A Glass Of Wine, And A Handsome Man.
Wine
Men
Glasses
A God That Can Be Understood Is No God. Who Can Explain The Infinite In Words?
God
Infinite
Understood
I [death] Was Astonished To See Him In Baghdad, For I Had An Appointment With Him Tonight In Samarra.
Death
Tonight
Baghdad
A Woman Will Always Sacrifice Herself If You Give Her The Opportunity. It Is Her Favourite Form Of Self Indulgence.
Love
Women
Sacrifice
But The Only Important Thing In A Book Is The Meaning It Has For You; It May Have Other And Much More Profound Meanings For The Critic, But At Second-hand They Can Be Of Small Service To You.
Book
Hands
Profound
Art, Unless It Leads To Right Action, Is No More Than The Opium Of An Intelligentsia.
Art
Morality
Action
Dullness Is The First Requisite Of A Good Husband.
Husband
Firsts
Good Husband
Do You Absolutely Despise Me, Walter?" "no." He Hesitated And His Voice Was Strange. "i Despise Myself.
Voice
Strange
Despise
I'm Afraid You've Thought Me A Bigger Fool Than I Am.
Fool
Bigger
I'm Only Twenty-five. If I've Made A Mistake I Have Time To Correct It.
Mistake
Twenties
Made
Reserve Is An Artificial Quality That Is Developed In Most Of Us But As The Result Of Innumerable Rebuffs.
Character
Personality
Quality
An Unfortunate Thing About This World Is That The Good Habits Are Much Easier To Give Up Than The Bad Ones.
Giving Up
Unfortunate Things
World
I Am Told That Today Rather More Than 60 Per Cent Of The Men Who Go To The Universities Go On A Government Grant. This Is A New Class That Has Entered Upon The Scene ... They Are Scum.
Men
Class
Goes On
As If A Woman Ever Loved A Man For His Virtue.
Men
Virtue
Ifs
An Art Is Only Great And Significant If It Is One That All May Enjoy. The Art Of A Clique Is But A Plaything.
Art
May
Clique
The Tragedy Of Love Is Not Death Or Separation. How Long Do You Think It Would Have Been Before One Or Other Of Them Ceased To Care? Oh, It Is Dreadfully Bitter To Look At A Woman Whom You Have Loved With All Your Heart And Soul, So That You Felt You Could Not Bear To Let Her Out Of Your Sight, And Realize That You Would Not Mind If You Never Saw Her Again. The Tragedy Of Love Is Indifference.
Heart
Thinking
Love Is
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.
Girl
Daughter
Children
It Is Unsafe To Take Your Reader For More Of A Fool Than He Is.
Fool
Reader
Unsafe
Common Sense And Nature Will Do A Lot To Make The Pilgrimage Of Life Not Too Difficult.
Life
Nature
Common Sense
Its A Toss-up When You Decide To Leave The Beaten Track. Many Are Called, Few Are Chosen.
Track
Toss
Chosen
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.
Change
Enjoy It While It Lasts
Delight
A Soul Is A Troublesome Possession, And When Man Developed It He Lost The Garden Of Eden.
Men
Garden
Eden
He Did Not Care If She Was Heartless, Vicious And Vulgar, Stupid And Grasping, He Loved Her. He Would Rather Have Misery With One Than Happiness With The Other.
Stupid
Romance
Heartless
Money Is Like A Sixth Sense Without Which You Cannot Make A Complete Use Of The Other Five.
Inspirational
Life
Happiness
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.
Anger
Political
World
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.
Time
Memories
Age
It Is Cruel To Discover One's Mediocrity Only When It Is Too Late. It Does Not Improve The Temper.
Too Late
Mediocrity
Doe
I'm Not Only My Spirit Buy My Body, And Who Can Decide How Much I, My Individual Self, Am Conditioned By The Accident Of My Body? Would Byron Have Been Byron But For His Club Foot, Or Dostoyevsky Dostoyevsky Without His Epilepsy?
Self
Epilepsy
Feet
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.
Men
Light
Air
The Good Traveler Has The Gift Of Surprise.
Surprise
Traveler
Life Is Really Very Fantastic, And One Has To Have A Peculiar Sense Of Humour To See The Fun Of It. [virtue]
Fun
Peculiar
Life Is
No Action Is In Itself Good Or Bad, But Only Such According To Convention.
Action
Conventions
If Forty Million People Say A Foolish Thing It Does Not Become A Wise One.
Wise
People
Atheism
The Rain Fell Alike Upon The Just And Upon The Unjust, And For Nothing Was There A Why And A Wherefore.
Rain
Unjust
The Novel May Stimulate You To Think. It May Satisfy Your Aesthetic Sense. It May Arouse Your Moral Emotions. But If It Does Not Entertain You It Is A Bad Novel.
Thinking
Doe
May
Habits In Writing As In Life Are Only Useful If They Are Broken As Soon As They Cease To Be Advantageous.
Writing
Broken
Habit
The Common Idea That Success Spoils People By Making Them Vain, Egotistic And Self-complacent Is Erroneous; On The Contrary It Makes Them, For The Most Part, Humble, Tolerant And Kind.
Inspirational
Success
Congratulations
[money] Is The String With Which A Sardonic Destiny Directs The Motions Of Its Puppets.
Destiny
Puppets
Strings
Sometimes The Road Was Only A Lane, With Thick Hawthorne Hedges, And The Green Elms Overhung It On Either Side So That When You Looked Up There Was Only A Strip Of Blue Sky Between. And As You Rode Along In The Warm, Keen Air You Had A Sensation That The World Was Standing Still And Life Would Last Forever. Although You Were Pedaling With Such Energy You Had A Delicious Feeling Of Laziness.
Air
Blue
Sky
D'you Call Life A Bad Job? Never! We've Had Our Ups And Downs, We've Had Our Struggles, We've Always Been Poor, But It's Been Worth It, Ay, Worth It A Hundred Times I Say When I Look Round At My Children.
Jobs
Children
Struggle
We Who Are Of Mature Age Seldom Suspect How Unmercifully And Yet With What Insight The Very Young Judge Us.
Judging
Age
Mature
In Business Sharp Practice Sometimes Succeeds, But In Art Honesty Is Not Only The Best But The Only Policy.
Art
Honesty
Practice
It Is Clear That Men Accept An Immediate Pain Rather Than An Immediate Pleasure, But Only Because They Expect A Greater Pleasure In The Future. Often The Pleasure Is Illusory, But Their Error In Calculation Is No Refutation Of The Rule.
Country
Children
Pain
Of All The Hokum With Which This Country [america] Is Riddled, The Most Odd Is The Common Notion That It Is Free Of Class Distinctions.
Country
Class
America
Usage Is The Only Test. I Prefer A Phrase That Is Easy And Unaffected To A Phrase That Is Grammatical.
Phrases
Tests
Easy
If A Man Hasn't What's Necessary To Make A Woman Love Him, It's His Fault, Not Hers.
Women
Men
Faults
We Do Not Write Because We Want To; We Write Because We Have To.
Writing
Want
When You Are Young You Take The Kindness People Show You As Your Right.
Kindness
People
Young
Reverie Is The Groundwork Of Creative Imagination; It Is The Privilege Of The Artist That With Him It Is Not As With Other Men An Escape From Reality, But The Means By Which He Accedes To It.
Mean
Reality
Men
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.
Cynical
Criticism
Doe
To Bear Failure With Courage Is The Best Proof Of Character That Anyone Can Give.
Courage
Failure
Inspiration
There In The Mist, Enormous, Majestic, Silent And Terrible, Stood The Great Wall Of China. Solitarily, With The Indifference Of Nature Herself, It Crept Up The Mountain Side And Slipped Down To The Depth Of The Valley.
Wall
Mountain
Depth
One Can Be Very Much In Love With A Woman Without Wishing To Spend The Rest Of One's Life With Her.
Women
Wish
Human Bondage
The Value Of Money Is That With It We Can Tell Any Man To Go To The Devil. It Is The Sixth Sense Which Enables You To Enjoy The Other Five.
Money
Men
Devil
The Writer Of Prose Can Only Step Aside When The Poet Passes...
Steps
Poet
Prose
People Who Ask For Your Criticism Want Only Praise.
People
Criticism
Want
When A Woman Loves You She's Not Satisfied Until She Possesses Your Soul. Because She's Weak, She Has A Rage For Domination, And Nothing Less Will Satisfy Her.
Women
Love You
Soul
Perfect Is Determined In Shortened Measures Of Time, Not Over Long Periods Of Time Or Lifetimes. It Would Be Unnatural.
Long
Perfect
Would Be
Life Isn't Long Enough For Love And Art.
Life
Famous Love
Art
Unfortunately Sometimes One Can't Do What One Thinks Is Right Without Making Someone Else Unhappy.
Thinking
Unhappy
Sometimes
Some Of Us Look For The Way In Opium And Some In God, Some Of Us In Whiskey And Some In Love. It Is All The Same Way And It Leads Nowhither.
Way
Looks
Whiskey
Tolerance Is Another Word For Indifference.
Diversity
Tolerance
Social Justice
A Good Havana Is One Of The Best Pleasures That I Know.
Luxury
Pleasure
Havana
She Alone Had Been Blind To His Merit. Why? Because He Loved Her And She Did Not Love Him. What Was It In The Human Heart That Made You Despise A Man Because He Loved You?
Heart
Men
Merit
Oh, It's Always The Same,' She Sighed, 'if You Want Men To Behave Well To You, You Must Be Beastly To Them; If You Treat Them Decently They Make You Suffer For It.
Men
Suffering
Want
The Crown Of Literature Is Poetry.
Hygiene
Poetry
Crowns
A Woman May Be As Wicked As She Likes, But If She Isn't Pretty It Won't Do Her Much Good.
Women
Good Woman
Wicked
And He Loved Her Suddenly Because She Loved Him.
Why Did You Look At The Sunset?' Philip Answered With His Mouth Full: Because I Was Happy.
Sunset
Looks
Mouths
Yet Magic Is No More Than The Art Of Employing Consciously Invisible Means To Produce Visible Effects. Will, Love And Imagination Are Magic Powers That Everyone Possesses; And Whoever Knows How To Develop Them To Their Fullest Extent Is A Magician. Magic Has But One Dogma, Namely, That The Seen Is The Measure Of The Unseen.
Art
Mean
Imagination
Perhaps Some Deep-rooted Atavism Urges The Wanderer Back To Lands Which His Ancestors Left In The Dim Beginnings Of History. Sometimes A Man Hits Upon A Place To Which He Mysteriously Feels That He Belongs. Here Is The Home He Sought, And He Will Settle Amid Scenes That He Has Never Seen Before, Among Men He Has Never Known, As Though They Were Familiar To Him From His Birth. Here At Last He Finds Rest.
Home
Men
Land
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.
Hate
People
Treasure
The Ideas For Stories That Thronged My Brain Would Not Let Me Rest Till I Had Got Rid Of Them By Writing Them.
Writing
Ideas
Brain
Success. I Don't Believe It Has Any Effect On Me. For One Thing I Always Expected It.
Work
Believe
Expected
The Moral I Draw Is That The Writer Should Seek His Reward In The Pleasure Of His Work And In Release From The Burden Of Thought; And, Indifferent To Aught Else, Care Nothing For Praise Or Censure, Failure Or Success.
Care
Rewards
Moral
The Fact That A Great Many People Believe Something Is No Guarantee Of Its Truth.
Believe
People
Guarantees
The Love That Lasts Longest Is The Love That Is Never Returned.
Love
Life
Heartbreak
We Find Things Beautiful Because We Recognize Them And Contrariwise We Find Things Beautiful Because Their Novelty Surprises Us.
Beauty
Beautiful
Novelty
Beauty Is Something Wonderful And Strange That The Artist Fashions Out Of The Chaos Of The World In The Torment Of His Soul.
Beauty
Beautiful
Fashion
Heaven Knows What Pains The Author Has Been At, What Bitter Experience He Has Endured And What Heartache Suffered, To Give Some Chance Reader A Few Hours' Relaxation Or To While Away The Tedium Of A Journey.
Pain
Writing
Journey
The Artist Can Within Limits Make What He Likes Of His Life... It Is Only The Artist, And Maybe The Criminal, Who Can Make His Own.
Artist
Atheism
Criminals
Marriage Is A Very Good Thing, But I Think It's A Mistake To Make A Habit Out Of It.
Mistake
Thinking
Funny Marriage
The Nature Of Men And Women - Their Essential Nature - Is So Vile And Despicable That If You Were To Portray A Person As He Really Is, No One Would Believe You.
Love
Believe
Men
There Is No Explanation For Evil. It Must Be Looked Upon As A Necessary Part Of The Order Of The Universe. To Ignore It Is Childish, To Bewail It Senseless.
Order
Evil
Atheism
Evil Is A Necessary Part Of The Order Of The Universe.
Order
Evil
Summing Up
I Never Met An Author Who Admitted That People Did Not Buy His Book Because It Was Dull.
Book
Reading
People
It Must Be That There Is Something Naturally Absurd In A Sincere Emotion, Though Why There Should Be I Cannot Imagine, Unless It Is That Man, The Ephemeral Inhabitant Of An Insignificant Planet, With All His Pain And All His Striving Is But A Jest In An Eternal Mind.
Pain
Men
Mind
We Didn't Think Much In The Air Corps Of A Fellow Who Wangled A Cushy Job Out Of His C.o. By Buttering Him Up. It Was Hard For Me To Believe That God Thought Much Of A Man Who Tried To Wangle Salvation By Fulsome Flattery. I Should Have Thought The Worship Most Pleasing To Him Was To Do Your Best According To Your Lights.
God
Jobs
Believe
It Needs A Good Deal Of Philosophy Not To Be Mortified By The Thought Of Persons Who Have Voluntarily Abandoned Everything That For The Most Of Us Makes Life Worth Living And Are Devoid Of Envy Of What They Have Missed. I Have Never Made Up My Mind Whether They Are Fools Or Wise Men.
Wise
Philosophy
Men
It's No Good Trying To Keep Up Old Friendships. It's Painful For Both Sides. The Fact Is, One Grows Out Of People, And The Only Thing Is To Face It.
Life
Friendship
Time
Kant Thought Things, Not Because They Were True, But Because He Was Kant.
By The Time An Actor Knows How To Act Any Sort Of Part He Is Often Too Old To Act Any But A Few.
Actors
Know How
Knows
It Must Be A Fault In Me That I Am Not Gravely Shocked At The Sins Of Others Unless They Personally Affect Me.
Faults
Sin
Shocked
It Was Such A Beautiful Day I Decided To Stay In Bed.
Beautiful
Beautiful Day
Bed
Love Is What Happens To Men And Women Who Don't Know Each Other.
Love
Men
Happens
It Requires The Feminine Temperament To Repeat The Same Thing Three Times With Unabated Zest.
Zest
Three
Feminine
It Is An Illusion That Youth Is Happy, An Illusion Of Those Who Have Lost It; But The Young Know They Are Wretched For They Are Full Of The Truthless Ideals Which Have Been Instilled In Them, And Each Time They Come Into Contact With The Real, They Are Bruised And Wounded.
Truth
Real
Youth
Excess On Occasion Is Exhilarating. It Prevents Moderation From Acquiring The Deadening Effect Of A Habit. It's A Funny Thing About Life; If You Refuse To Accept Anything But The Best, You Very Often Get It. Like All Weak Men He Laid An Exaggerated Stress On Not Changing One's Mind.
Inspirational
Stress
Men
I've Met So Many People, Often The Scum Of The Earth, And Found Them, You Know, Quite Decent. I Am An Uncomfortable Stranger To Moral Indignation.
Scum Of The Earth
People
Moral
We Americans... Like Change. It Is At Once Our Weakness And Our Strength.
Weakness
No Married Man's Ever Made Up His Mind Until He's Heard What His Wife Has Got To Say About It.
Men
Wife
Mind
There Is Only One Thing About Which I Am Certain, And This Is That There Is Very Little About Which One Can Be Certain
Decision
Littles
Certain
Trending Author
Andrea Arnold
Harvey Milk
Samuel Lover
Aziz Ansari
Charlotte Ross
Emily Dickinson
Category
Information