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Art is a manifestation of emotion, and emotion speaks a language that all may understand.
W. Somerset Maugham
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Interpretation

What this quote means

Art expresses emotions that can be universally understood by everyone.

This quote suggests that art transcends barriers of language and culture by conveying deep emotions, making it an inherent form of communication for all humans. The universal nature of emotional expression in art allows individuals of diverse backgrounds to connect and find meaning in the same piece.

Themes

ArtEmotionCommunicationExpressionUnderstanding

In practice

Example use cases

In a speech on creativity, one might quote this to emphasize the power of artistic expression.

More from W. Somerset Maugham

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.
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Are you sure you can prevent yourself from falling in love one of these days? Such things do happen, you know, even to the most prudent men.' Simon gave him a strange, one might even have thought a hostile, look. I should tear it out of my heart as I'd wrench out of my mouth a rotten tooth.
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I don't think of the past. The only thing that matters is the everlasting present.
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The world is quickly bored by the recital of misfortune, and willing avoids the sight of distress.
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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.
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