“Considering how foolishly people act and how pleasantly they prattle, perhaps it would be better for the world if they talked more and did less.”
"1892", p. 1
A Writer's Notebook (1946)
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W. Somerset Maugham 158
British playwright, novelist, short story writer 1874–1965Related quotes

Source: Interview with Eric Stuart, voice actor for Pokemon and Yu-Gi-Oh! https://jotaku.net/2020/07/14/interview-with-eric-stuart-voice-actor-for-pokemon-and-yu-gi-oh/ (July 14, 2020)

On mental illness, as quoted on Kenneth Gärdestad: Han ville inte gå någon annan väg än kärlekens väg, Sveriges Radio P4 Sörmland, published on 31 December 2015 (web) https://sverigesradio.se/sida/artikel.aspx?programid=87&artikel=6333872

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Fruits of Solitude (1682), Part I

Source: The Moral Judgment of the Child (1932), Ch. 2 : Adult Constraint and Moral Realism <!-- p. 185 -->
Context: The majority of parents are poor psychologists and give their children the most questionable moral trainings. It is perhaps in this domain that one realized most how keenly how immoral it can be to believe too much in morality, and how much more precious is a little humanity than all the rules in the world. Thus the adult leads the child to the notion of objective responsibility, and consolidates in consequence a tendency that is already natural to the spontaneous mentality of little children.
“She does not talk anymore, the one who used to talk so pleasantly.”
Le livre de ma mère [The Book of My Mother] (1954)
Variant: She answers no more, the one who used to answer always.

Speech at the Opening of the Bandung Conference