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
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.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The concept of normality is an idealized construct rather than a common reality.
W. Somerset Maugham's quote highlights the notion that 'normal' is a constructed ideal, representing the average traits of humanity. In reality, individuals possess a diverse range of attributes, making it rare to encounter someone who embodies all aspects of what society labels as normality, thus encouraging a deeper appreciation for individual uniqueness.
Themes
NormalIdealAverageIndividualityDiversity
In practice
Example use cases
In a discussion on mental health awareness, this quote could emphasize the importance of embracing individual differences.
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.
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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.
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
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