Men seek but one thing in life — their pleasure. - William Somerset Maugham

The writer of prose can only step aside when the poet passes...

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.

I did not believe him capable of love. That is an emotion in which tenderness is an essential part, but Strickland had no tenderness either for himself or for others; there is in love a sense of weakness, a desire to protect, an eagerness to do good and to give pleasure — if not unselfishness, at all events a selfishness which marvellously conceals itself; it has in it a certain diffidence.