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 crown of literature is poetry. It is its end and aim. It is the sublimest activity of the human mind. It is the achievement of beauty and delicacy. The writer of prose can only step aside when the poet passes.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Poetry is the highest form of literature, representing the pinnacle of human creative expression.
This quote emphasizes the importance and superiority of poetry within the literary world, suggesting that it embodies the most profound and refined aspects of human thought and creativity. Maugham argues that while prose has its place, poetry captures beauty and delicacy in a way that prose cannot, highlighting the uniqueness of poetic expression in its ability to convey deep emotions and insights.
Themes
PoetryLiteratureArtBeautyCreativity
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech addressing aspiring writers, you may quote Maugham to inspire them to appreciate the art of poetry.
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
The arts especially address the idea of aesthetic experience. An aesthetic experience is one in which your senses are operating at their peak; when you’re present in the current moment; when you’re resonating with the excitement of this thing that you’re experiencing; when you are fully alive.
Ken RobinsonRead
Now art should never try to be popular. The public should try to make itself artistic.
Oscar WildeRead
I cannot absorb living in a world where I have an Oscar for best actress and Denzel doesn't have one for best actor.
Julia RobertsRead
A film is - or should be - more like music than like fiction. It should be a progression of moods and feelings. The theme, what's behind the emotion, the meaning, all that comes later.
Stanley KubrickRead
I write because writing is something that I have to do. And it doesn't matter whether people like it or not. When I write, I feel the pressure and anxiety that come with taking an empty piece of paper and trying to fill it with something from your own consciousness.
Wayne DyerRead
My hope is that we continue to nurture the places that we love, but that we also look outside our immediate worlds.
Annie LeibovitzRead