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.
W. Somerset MaughamRead
Imagination grows by exercise.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Imagination develops and becomes stronger the more we use it.
This quote by W. Somerset Maugham suggests that the act of exercising our imagination—through creativity, exploration, and thinking outside the box—enhances its capabilities and richness. Just as physical muscles grow stronger with regular use, so too does our imaginative faculty, allowing for greater innovation and problem-solving in various aspects of life.
Themes
ImaginationExerciseCreativityInnovationGrowth
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech about creativity in education, one might reference this quote to encourage students to explore their imaginative skills.
More from W. Somerset Maugham
All quotes →Cronshaw stopped for a moment to drink. He had pondered for twenty years the problem whether he loved liquor because it made him talk or whether he loved conversation because it made him thirsty.
W. Somerset MaughamRead
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.
W. Somerset MaughamRead
I don't think of the past. The only thing that matters is the everlasting present.
W. Somerset MaughamRead
The world is quickly bored by the recital of misfortune, and willing avoids the sight of distress.
W. Somerset MaughamRead
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.
W. Somerset MaughamRead
Similar quotes
Books are meat and medicine and flame and flight and flower steel, stitch, cloud and clout, and drumbeats on the air.
Gwendolyn BrooksRead
It is time to recognize conventional MBA programs for what they are - or else to close them down. They are specialized training in the functions of business, not general educating in the practice of management.
Henry MintzbergRead
If only for a half hour a day, a child should do something serviceable to the community
George Bernard ShawRead
The principle itself of dogmatic religion, dogmatic morality, dogmatic philosophy, is what requires to be rooted out; not any particular manifestation of that principle. The very corner-stone of an education intended to form great minds, must be the recognition of the principle, that the object is to call forth the greatest possible quantity of intellectual power, and to inspire the intensest love of truth.
John Stuart MillRead
This will never be a civilized country until we spend more money for books than we do for chewing gum.
Elbert HubbardRead
Routinely, when I finish a book, I think 'What will I do? Where will I get an idea?' And a kind of low-level panic sets in.
Philip RothRead