It must be that to govern a nation you need a specific talent and that this may very well exist without general ability.
W. Somerset MaughamIt has been said that metaphysics is the finding of bad reasons for what we believe upon instinct.
W. Somerset MaughamThere was an immeasurable distance between the quick and the dead: they did not seem to belong to the same species; and it was strange to think that but a little while before they had spoken and moved and eaten and laughed.
W. Somerset MaughamThe author always loads his dice, but he must never let the reader see that he has done so, and by the manipulation of his plot, he can engage the reader's attention so that he does not perceive the violence that has been done to him.
W. Somerset MaughamI 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.
W. Somerset Maugham