Of Human Bondage QUOTES

141 " I ought to have lived in the eighteen hundreds,' he said himself. 'What I want is a patron. I should have published my poems by subscription and dedicated them to a nobleman. I long to compose rhymed couplets upon the poodle of a countess. My soul yearns for the love of chambermaids and the conversation of bishops. "

― W. Somerset Maugham , Of Human Bondage

142 " Илюзия е, че младостта е щастлива, илюзия на онези, които са я загубили; младите страдат от безброй лъжливи представи, които са им внушавани, и всеки път, щом се докоснат до истината, тя ги наранява. Като че са жертви на заговор, защото книгите, които им се дават да четат - минали през подбор и затова пълни с идеализирани представи - както и нещата, които чуват от по-възрастните - хора, гледащи назад към миналото през розовата мъгла на забравата, ги подготвят за един недействителен живот. Те трябва сами да открият, че всичко прочетено и чуто е лъжа, лъжа и само лъжа, и всяко откритие е още един гвоздей, забит в тялото им, разпънато на кръста на живота. Но странно - всеки преживява това горчиво разочарование; а после на свой ред допринася за изграждането на илюзия, несъзнателно тласкан от непреодолима вътрешна сила. "

― W. Somerset Maugham , Of Human Bondage

143 " they threw this eager vitality of theirs into a vehement striving after the ineffable. "

― W. Somerset Maugham , Of Human Bondage

144 " Thank god I'm free from all that now", he thought. And yet even as he said it he was not quit sure whether he spoke sincerely. When he was under the influence of passion he had felt a singualr vigour, and his mind has worked with unwonted force. He was more alive, there was an excitement of sheer being, an eager vehemence of soul, which made life now a little dull. "

― W. Somerset Maugham , Of Human Bondage

145 " You will hear people say that poverty is the best spur to the artist. They have never felt the iron of it in their flesh. They do not know how mean it makes you. It exposes you to endless humiliation, it cuts your wings, it eats into your soul like a cancer. It is not wealth one asks for, but just enough to preserve one's dignity, to work unhampered, to be generous, frank, and independent. I pity with all my heart the artist, whether he writes or paints, who is entirely dependent for subsistence upon his art." Philip "

― W. Somerset Maugham , Of Human Bondage

146 " The only reasonable thing was to accept the good of men and be patient with their faults. The words of the dying God crossed his memory: Forgive them, for they know not what they do. "

― W. Somerset Maugham , Of Human Bondage

147 " He did not know how wide a country, arid and precipitous, must be crossed before the traveller through life comes to an acceptance of reality. It is an illusion that youth is happy, an illusion of those who have lost it; but the young know they are wretched, for they are full of the truthless ideals which have been instilled into them, and each time they come in contact with the real they are bruised and wounded. "

― W. Somerset Maugham , Of Human Bondage

148 " one could reconcile oneself to existence only because it was meaningless. "

― W. Somerset Maugham , Of Human Bondage

149 " Life was not so horrible if it was meaningless, and he faced it with a strange sense of power. "

― W. Somerset Maugham , Of Human Bondage

150 " They had furtive eyes and weak chins. There was no wickedness in them, but only pettiness and vulgarity. "

― W. Somerset Maugham , Of Human Bondage

151 " His death had been as futile as his life. He died ingloriously, of a stupid disease, failing once more, even at the end, to accomplish anything. It was just the same now as if he had never lived. "

― W. Somerset Maugham , Of Human Bondage

152 " The new-born child does not realise that his body is more a part of himself than surrounding objects, and will play with his toes without any feeling that they belong to him more than the rattle by his side; and it is only by degrees, through pain, that he understands the fact of the body. And experiences of the same kind are necessary for the individual to become conscious of himself; but here there is the difference that, although everyone becomes equally conscious of his body as a separate and complete organism, everyone does not become equally conscious of himself as a complete and separate personality. "

― W. Somerset Maugham , Of Human Bondage

153 " Philip had a practical outlook and he grew impatient with the theories which resulted in no action. "

― W. Somerset Maugham , Of Human Bondage

154 " For the same uprush of fancy which had shown him with all the force of mathematical demonstration that life had no meaning, brought with it another idea; and that was why Cronshaw, he imagined, had given him the Persian rug. As the weaver elaborated his pattern for no end but the pleasure of his aesthetic sense, so might a man live his life, or if one was forced to believe that his actions were outside his choosing, so might a man look at his life, that it made a pattern. There was as little need to do this as there was use. It was merely something he did for his own pleasure. "

― W. Somerset Maugham , Of Human Bondage

155 " We paint from within outward - if we force our vision on the world it calls us great painters; if we don't it ignores us; but we are the same. We don't attach any meaning to greatness or smallness. What happens to our work afterward is unimportant; we have got all we could out of it while we were doing it. "

― W. Somerset Maugham , Of Human Bondage

156 " Then the horrid fact was disclosed that the new head had a mania for general information. He had doubts about the utility of examinations on subjects which had been crammed for the occasion. He wanted common sense. "

― W. Somerset Maugham , Of Human Bondage

157 " He had always had a passion for life and the idealism he had come across seemed to him for the most part a cowardly shrinking from it. The idealist withdrew himself because he could not suffer the jostling of the human crowd; he had not the strength to fight and so called the battle vulgar; he was vain and since his fellows would not take him at his own estimate, consoled himself with despising his fellows. For Phillip, this type was Hayward, fair, languid, too fat now and rather bald, still cherishing the remains of his good looks and still delicately proposing to do exquisite things in the uncertain future; and at the back of this were whiskey and vulgar amours of the street. "

― W. Somerset Maugham , Of Human Bondage

158 " [...] Pe măsură ce o să crești o să descoperi că primul lucru necesar pentru a transforma universul într-un spațiu în care să poți trăi este să recunoști egoismul inevitabil al omenirii. Dumneata ceri altruism de la alții, ceea ce constituie pretenția absurdă ca ei să-și sacrifice dorințele de dragul dorințelor dumitale. Dar de ce ar face-o? Odată ce te-ai împăcat cu ideea că pe lumea asta fiecare trăiește pentru sine, vei cere mai puțin de la semenii dumitale. Ei nu te vor dezamăgi și dumneata îi vei privi cu mai multă milă și îngăduință. În viață, oamenii nu caută decît un singur lucru - propria plăcere. "

― W. Somerset Maugham , Of Human Bondage

159 " He could not bear the thought of discussing his situation, he could endure it only by determining resolutely not to think about it. He was afraid of his weakness if once he began to open his heart. "

― W. Somerset Maugham , Of Human Bondage

160 " he knew that he was at the mercy of his emotions: an accidental kindness touched him so much that sometimes he did not venture to speak in order not to betray the unsteadiness of his voice. "

― W. Somerset Maugham , Of Human Bondage