"You know, there are two good things in……" — W. Somerset Maugham

"You know, there are two good things in life, freedom of thought and freedom of action. In France you get freedom of action: you can do what you like and nobody bothers, but you must think like everybody else. In Germany you must do what everybody else does, but you may think as you choose. They're both very good things. I personally prefer freedom of thought. But in England you get neither: you're ground down by convention. You can't think as you like and you can't act as you like. That's because it's a democratic nation. I expect America's worse."

— W. Somerset Maugham

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431 Quotes by W. Somerset Maugham

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More Act Quotes

This quote is filed under Act Quotes, one of 8,447 quotes in that category. Here are a few more:

Under conditions of tyranny it is far easier to act than to think. — Hannah Arendt
It is in the very nature of things human that every act that has once made its appearance and has… — Hannah Arendt
We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit. — Aristotle
Quality is not an act, it is a habit. — Aristotle
Excellence is an art won by training and habituation. We do not act rightly because we have virtue or excellence,… — Aristotle
Thou wilt find rest from vain fancies if thou doest every act in life as though it were thy last. — Aristotle
Storytelling is fine as long as you can encourage people to act on the stories. — Karen Armstrong
Music is the social act of communication among people, a gesture of friendship, the strongest there is. — Malcolm Arnold
Criticize the act, not the person. — Mary Kay Ash
We like to engage in a normal publishing effort, which is to act in a responsible manner and make sure… — Julian Assange
Gardening is not a rational act. — Margaret Atwood
All works of art are commissioned in the sense that no artist can create one by a simple act of… — Wystan Hugh Auden

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