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
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.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Love can unexpectedly take hold of even the most careful individuals, and resisting it can be painful.
In this quote, W. Somerset Maugham explores the inevitability of falling in love, even for those who are cautious or prudent. The conversation reflects the complex nature of emotions and the struggle between desire and self-control, suggesting that love has the power to infiltrate one's heart despite a conscious effort to resist it, likened to the painful act of extracting a rotten tooth.
Themes
LoveEmotionHeartResistanceRelationships
In practice
Example use cases
During a wedding speech to highlight the unpredictable nature of love.
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
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
For the complete life, the perfect pattern includes old age as well as youth and maturity.
W. Somerset MaughamRead
Similar quotes
And I, a materialist who does not believe in the starry heaven promised to a human being, for this dog and for every dog I believe in heaven, yes, I believe in a heaven that I will never enter, but he waits for me wagging his big fan of a tail so I, soon to arrive, will feel welcomed.
Pablo NerudaRead
You're the first, the last, and my everything and the answer to all my dreams. You're my sun, my moon, my guiding star, my kind of wonderful, that's what you are
Barry WhiteRead
He takes her in his arms He wants to say I love you, nothing can hurt you But he thinks this is a lie, so he says in the end You're dead, nothing can hurt you which seems to him a more promising beginning, more true.
Louise GluckRead
I kiss you and kiss you, With arms around my own, Ah, how shall I miss you, When, dear, you have grown.
William Butler YeatsRead
It's because of you when I'm in bed in the morning that I can wind my spring and tell myself I have to live another good day.
Haruki MurakamiRead
He stepped down, trying not to look long at her, as if she were the sun, yet he saw her, like the sun, even without looking.
Leo TolstoyRead