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
We find things beautiful because we recognize them and contrariwise we find things beautiful because their novelty surprises us.
Interpretation
Beauty is perceived in familiar things as well as in the surprise of new experiences.
This quote by W. Somerset Maugham suggests that our appreciation of beauty is twofold: we find beauty in things we recognize and understand, which gives us comfort and familiarity, while we also thrill to the beauty of novel experiences that astound and surprise us. Together, these aspects of beauty enrich our lives and shape our perceptions.
In practice
This quote can be used in a speech about the importance of art in our lives.
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.
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.
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.
I don't think of the past. The only thing that matters is the everlasting present.
The world is quickly bored by the recital of misfortune, and willing avoids the sight of distress.
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.
His belief in the power of music to convey ideas - not just entertain - has filtered down to musicians in every field, from alt-rock to hip-hop, from Bruce Springsteen and U2 to Arcade Fire and Kanye West. Popular music is different because of Johnny Cash.
but writers, Garp knew, were just observers - good and ruthless imitators of human behavior.
If you want to find out what a writer or a cartoonist really feels, look at his work. That's enough.
Women do not have as great a need for poetry because their own essence is poetry.
Ballet is the fairies' baseball.
Influences come from everywhere but when you are actually shooting you work primarily by instinct. But what is instinct? It is a lifetime accumulation of influence: experience, knowledge, seeing and hearing. There is little time for reflection in taking a photograph. All your experiences come to a peak and you work on two levels: conscious and unconscious.
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