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Beauty
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The loveliest face in all the world will not please you if you see it suddenly eye to eye, at a distance of half an inch from your own.
-Max Beerbohm, Zuleika Dobson
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Conscience
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The Non-Conformist Conscience makes cowards of us all.
-Max Beerbohm
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Education
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I was a modest, good-humored boy. It is Oxford that has made me insufferable.
-Max Beerbohm
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Genius
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Men of genius are not quick judges of character. Deep thinking and high imagining blunt that trivial instinct by which you and I size people up.
-Max Beerbohm
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Greatness & Great Things
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The dullard's envy of brilliant men is always assuaged by the suspicion that they will come to a bad end.
-Max Beerbohm
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History
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To give an accurate and exhaustive account of that period would need a far less brilliant pen than mine.
-Max Beerbohm
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Laughter
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Nobody ever died of laughter.
-Max Beerbohm
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Mankind, Man
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Mankind is divisible into two great classes: hosts and guests.
-Max Beerbohm
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Mediocrity
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Only mediocrity can be trusted to be always at its best.
-Max Beerbohm
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Music
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She was one of those people who said I don't know anything about music, but I know what I like.
-Max Beerbohm
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Nonsense
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Good sense about trivialities is better than nonsense about things that matter.
-Max Beerbohm
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Portraits
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It seems to be a law of nature that no man, unless he has some obvious physical deformity, ever is loth to sit for his portrait.
-Max Beerbohm
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Sacrifice
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No fine work can be done without concentration and self-sacrifice and toil and doubt.
-Max Beerbohm
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Sports
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How many charming talents have been spoiled by the instilled desire to do 'important' work! Some people are born to lift heavy weights. Some are born to juggle with golden balls.
-Max Beerbohm
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Success & Failure
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There is much to be said for failure. It is much more interesting than success.
-Max Beerbohm
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Vanity
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To say that a man is vain means merely that he is pleased with the effect he produces on other people. A conceited man is satisfied with the effect he produces on himself.
-Max Beerbohm, Quia Imperfection And Even Now (1920)
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Books by and about Max Beerbohm