“It is not wealth one asks for, but just enough to preserve one's dignity, to work unhampered, to be generous, frank, and independent.”

— W. Somerset Maugham , book Of Human Bondage

Source: Of Human Bondage (1915), Ch. 51
Context: 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.

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W. Somerset Maugham 158

British playwright, novelist, short story writer 1874–1965

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