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
Thank God, I can look at a sunset now without having to think how to describe it
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote expresses gratitude for the ability to appreciate beauty without the pressure of needing to articulate it.
W. Somerset Maugham's quote highlights the joy of simply experiencing beauty, such as a sunset, without the compulsion to analyze or describe it. It suggests that true appreciation comes from a place of personal reflection rather than the need to communicate or explain the experience to others.
Themes
SunsetAppreciationBeautyGratitudeExperience
In practice
Example use cases
A speaker at an art exhibit might use this quote to convey the importance of experiencing art beyond verbal expression.
More from W. Somerset Maugham
All quotes βCronshaw 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.
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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.
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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.
W. Somerset MaughamRead
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