or any patent from oblivion, in preservations below the moon – the predicament of Sir Thomas Browne in Cyril Connolly’s “Enemies of Promise”, a book just recently recommended to me. My pidgin science is certainly not good enough to appreciate enough to wonderful descriptions like on page 30 “look on my works ye mortals and despair”. The scientist

should keep himself free from all creed, from all dogma, from all opinion. As he accepts the opinions of others he loses his talents, all his feelings, and ideas must be his own.

Another great Maugham quote is on page 129

Success is a poison that should only be taken in later life, then only in small doses

or on page 190

Already I had accepted the theory that (1) character is more important than intellect (2) intellect is usually found without character (3) intellect when found with character is called nous.