I have an idea that some men are born out of their due place. Accident has cast them amid certain surroundings, but they have always a nostalgia for a home they know not. They are strangers in their birthplace, and the leafy lanes they have known from childhood or the populous streets in which they have played, remain but a place of passage. They may spend their whole lives aliens among their kindred and remain aloof among the only scenes they have ever known. Perhaps it is this sense of strangeness that sends men far and wide in the search for something permanent, to which they may attach themselves. Perhaps some deep-rooted atavism urges the wanderer back to lands which his ancestors left in the dim beginnings of history.
W. Somerset Maugham
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OG MANDINO When the taste for physical gratifications among them has grown more rapidly than their education . ... ALEXIS DE TOCQUEVILLE Human passions have mysterious ways, in children as well as grown-ups. Those affected by them can't ... MICHAEL ENDE Some are from the world of the arts, some from the fields of business, architecture, wine-making and... JON STEWART May princes know then that they begin to lose (their) state at that hour in which they begin to brea... NICCOLO MACHIAVELLI The unphilosophical majority among men are the ones most helplessly dependent on their era's dominan... LEONARD PEIKOFF What did they want from it? Lechery, smut, confirmation of their worst suspicions. But perhaps some ... MARGARET ATWOOD Men are admitted into heaven not because they have curbed and governed their passions or have no pas... WILLIAM BLAKE Most German perpetrators were never punished or rewarded for their behavior, but they had learned so... FERN SCHUMER CHAPMAN When their welfare check doesn't arrive by the first of the month and they run out of baby formula, ... ARI KELMAN Since in early youth it cannot be known what ends are likely to occur to us in the course of life, p... IMMANUEL KANT We spend our lives fighting to get people very slightly less stupid than we are to accept truths tha... DORIS LESSING The wise men posit questions to which they may not always find immediate answers, but through their ... UNIVERSITY OF NAVARRA ...perhaps, also this short embrace may infuse in their veins a little of this thrill which they wou... GUY DE MAUPASSANT Nature is infinitely rich and diverse in her ways. She can be seen to break her most unchanging laws... JAN POTOCKI There now remain only a few books, which they call books of the lesser prophets; and as I have alrea... THOMAS PAINE The dead play a very prominent part in the experience of the wanderer abroad. The houses in which th... THOMAS BAILEY ALDRICH That was a misconception among a lot of people - that Mormons are polygamist. No, they're not. I... TREY PARKER Those men have never done anything in their lives except stare at the clouds and the stars. The Indi... WARREN EYSTER It is very difficult to know people and I don't think one can ever really know any but one's own cou... W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM Perhaps this is how girls fall -- not in some crime of enchantment at the hands of a wicked ne'er-do... LIBBA BRAY Thus they have an idol that they petition for victory in war; another for success in their labors; a... HERNAN CORTES But I think that because they trusted themselves and respected themselves as individuals, because th... JOHN STEINBECK People constantly speak of "the government" doing this or that, as they might speak of God doing it.... H.L. MENCKEN Everyone, at some point in their lives, wakes up in the middle of the night with the feeling that th... LEMONY SNICKET In government offices which are sensitive to the vehemence and passion of mass sentiment public men ... WALTER LIPPMANN Where are they now that we, the men whom they sent off to war, have returned? These are commanders w... SENATOR JOHN KERRY We women are always in danger of living too exclusively in the affections; and though our affections... GEORGE ELIOT I think all the heretics I have known have been virtuous men. They have the virtue of fortitude, or ... BENJAMIN FRANKLIN For men and women are not only themselves; they are also the region in which they are born, the city... W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM What I do know is that when a person is first asked to explain what is wrong, they may find it almos... LINDA GASK Mankind have their local attachments. They have a particular regard for the spot, in which they were... THOMAS CLARKSON Men coming out of the high school system know they will be taken care of by the bounty of the state.... BEN REILLY For better or worse, pessimism without compromise lacks public appeal. In all, the few who have gone... THOMAS LIGOTTI Most of the world is either asleep or dead. The religious people are, for the most part, asleep. The... THOMAS MERTON For some of the guys here, they have a chip on their shoulder. But for some guys, they have played a... JASON HUNTER They have not forgotten the Mysteries,' she said, ‘they have found them too difficult. They want a... MARION ZIMMER BRADLEY Men are admitted into Heaven not because they have curbed and governed their passions or have no pas... WILLIAM BLAKE Men love to trust God (as they profess) for what they have in their hands, in possession, or what li... JOHN OWEN The most important element of the foster care system is getting kids out of foster care and into a p... RHEA PERLMAN Ah! How neatly tied, in these people, is the umbilical cord of morality! Since they left their mothe... ANTONIN ARTAUD It is my belief that many who think they dislike poetry are really poetical in their natures and are... ORSON F. WHITNEY Thus I must contradict you when you go on to argue that men are completely unable to do without the ... SIGMUND FREUD Most errors consist only in our not rightly applying names to things. For when someone says that the... BARUCH SPINOZA I like to open for a band as it brings on sort of a challenge and it makes things more interesting. ... KELLY JONES They spend time. That’s just it. They spend time traveling. The time weighs heavily on them becaus... IAIN M. BANKS Without self-knowledge you have no root in yourselves personally; you may endure for a time, but und... JOHN HENRY NEWMAN The method of exposition which philosophers have adopted leads many to suppose that they are simply ... MORRIS RAPHAEL COHEN I know black women in Tennessee who have worked all their lives, from the time they were twelve year... WILMA RUDOLPH I don't know how many genuine nature lovers are there in France. They are finding everything odd abo... APURVA GAGLANI Some growers have lost 100% of their crop, a blow from which they may never recover. This is going t... IAN BALLANTYNE The American Negro has the great advantage of having never believed the collection of myths to which... JAMES BALDWIN The only happy talkers are dandies who extract pleasure from the very perishability of their materia... CYRIL CONNOLLY Generally women are better than men -- they have more character. I prefer men for some things, obvio... LAUREN BACALL Some patients may have no symptoms of depression, but they do not feel that they have returned to th... MARK ZIMMERMAN I do not know a warning that I judge more necessary to be given to those who are called this day, th... JOHN OWEN People have been particularly affected because of the salt water flooding the farmlands, which has l... KAREN KAYSER Some people think they can find satisfaction in good food, fine clothes, lively music, and sexual pl... LIEZI Men know not the gold which lies in the mine of Christ Jesus, or surely they would dig in it night a... CHARLES SPURGEON Each subcommittee has a time frame in which they need to get their stuff finished in. Once they fina... BETH RICHARDSON It is argued that because they believed thoroughly in a just, moral God they could put there faith t... JOHN STEINBECK The answer isn't more time but a greater awareness of the time we have. CRAIG GROESCHEL Therefore when thou doest thine alms, do not sound a trumpet before thee, as the hypocrites do in th... BIBLE There is a folk-tale about a shoemaker and his wife who were so poor that they had to send their man... GYULA ILLYéS And from among those who are round about you of the dwellers of the desert there are hypocrites, and... QURAN Some leaders are fairly good & slow learners,they use their first term in office to learn,but in the... DAVID ATTA (A.K.A DAVIED ATTLARS & MR DAIN) Many, perhaps most, people who lose their jobs are mistaken about the reason for which they lost the... HARVEY MACKAY Such young men are often awkward, ungainly, and not yet formed in their gait; they straggle with the... ANTHONY TROLLOPE I thank God for schools that are serious about the gospel of Jesus Christ. They are vital to perpetu... JAMES C. DOBSON And Allah has made some of you excel others in the means of subsistence, so those who are made to ex... QURAN I'm certain that it was an incredible gift for me to not only be friends with some of the greatest b... BONNIE RAITT It is wonderful to think how men of very large estates not only spend their yearly income, but are o... SAMUEL JOHNSON Do you know, the only people I can have a conversation with are the Jews? At least when they quote s... 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JOHN CONNOLLY I have come to think that great men are characterized precisely by the extreme position which they t... MARGUERITE YOURCENAR By this method thousands of humans have been brought to think that humility means pretty women tryin... C.S. LEWIS I know that most men, including those at ease with problems of thegreatest complexity, can seldom ac... LEO NIKOLAEVICH TOLSTOY When the bones have become most dry, when they are lying most scattered and separate from each other... F. D. MAURICE It is the most ambitious and driven among us who are the most sorely in need of having our reckless ... ALAIN DE BOTTON Do they not see that We have created cattle for them, out of what Our hands have wrought, so they ar... QURAN ...only if they remain totally detached can they have the energy to be free. Theirs is a particular ... CARLOS CASTANEDA They would have liked to be rich. They believed they would have been up to it. They would have known... 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He lives by make-believe. W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM I do not confer praise or blame: I accept. I am the measure of all things. I am the centre of the wo... W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM I daresay one profits more by the mistakes one makes off one's own bat than by doing the right thing... W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM He had heard people speak contemptuously of money: he wondered if they had ever tried to do without ... W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM Follow your inclinations with due regard to the policeman round the corner. W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM D'you call life a bad job? Never! We've had our ups and downs, we've had our struggles, we've always... W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM Art is merely the refuge which the ingenious have invented, when they were supplied with food and wo... W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM People ask for criticism, but they only want praise. W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM When you have loved as she has loved, you grow old beautifully. W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM We do not write because we want to; we write because we have to. W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM There are three rules for writing the novel. Unfortunately, no one knows what they are. W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM The common idea that success spoils people by making them vain, egotistic, and self-complacent is er... W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM She had a pretty gift for quotation, which is a serviceable substitute for wit. W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM It's a funny thing about life; if you refuse to accept anything but the best, you very often get it. W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM It was such a lovely day I thought it a pity to get up. W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM It is a funny thing about life; if you refuse to accept anything but the best, you very often get it... W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM Dying is a very dull, dreary affair. And my advice to you is to have nothing whatever to do with it. W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM Nothing in the world is permanent, and we're foolish when we ask anything to last, but surely we're ... W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM Old age has its pleasures, which, though different, are not less than the pleasures of youth. W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM The complete life, the perfect pattern, includes old age as well as youth and maturity. The beauty o... W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM Old age is ready to undertake tasks that youth shirked because they would take too long. W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM What makes old age hard to bear is not the failing of one's faculties, mental and physical, but the ... W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM When I was young I was amazed at Plutarch's statement that the elder Cato began at the age of eighty... W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM The common idea that success spoils people by making them vain, egotistic, and self-complacent is er... W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM It is an illusion that youth is happy, an illusion of those who has lost it. W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM Charm and nothing but charm at last grows a little tiresome. It's a relief then to deal with a man w... W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM As if a woman ever loved a man for his virtue. W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM Life isn't long enough for love and art. W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM The most useful thing about a principle is that it can always be sacrificed to expediency. W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM When things are at their worst I find something always happens. W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM When I read a book I seem to read it with my eyes only, but now and then I come across a passage, pe... W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM There's always one who loves and one who lets himself be loved. W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM There was an immeasurable distance between the quick and the dead: they did not seem to belong to th... W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM The rain fell alike upon the just and upon the unjust, and for nothing was there a why and a wherefo... W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM The important thing was to love rather than to be loved. W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM Money is like a sixth sense without which you cannot make a complete use of the other five. W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM Men seek but one thing in life - their pleasure. W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM Life wouldn't be worth living if I worried over the future as well as the present. W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM It's asking a great deal that things should appeal to your reason as well as your sense of the aesth... W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM It is cruel to discover one's mediocrity only when it is too late. W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM It is an illusion that youth is happy, an illusion of those who have lost it; but the young know the... W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM You Europeans know nothing about America. Because we amass large fortunes you think we care for noth... W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM We didn't think much in the air corps of a fellow who wangled a cushy job out of his C.O. by butteri... W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM