A Quote by W. Somerset Maugham

A good style should show no signs of effort. What is written should seem a happy accident.

W. Somerset Maugham

Quote Topics

Accident Effort Good Happy Seem Should Show Signs Style Written

Quote Author

W. Somerset Maugham
British - Novelist
January 25, 1874 - December 16, 1965

Design and style should work toward making you look good and feel good without a lot of effort so you can get on with the things that matter.

Donna Karan

To me, design and style should work toward making you look good and feel good without a lot of effort - so you can get on with the things that matter.

Donna Karan

Reconnaissance memoranda should always be written in the simplest style and be purely descriptive. They should never stray from their objective by introducing extraneous ideas.

Napoleon Bonaparte

Do Not Disturb signs should be written in the language of the hotel maids.

Tim Bedore

Rich people should consider that they are only trustees for what they possess, and should show their wealth to be more in doing good than merely in having it. They should not reserve their benevolence for purposes after they are dead, for those who give not of their property till they die show that they would not then if they could keep it any longer.

Joseph Hall

For me, a tour show should have a narrative; it should have an arc. It shouldn't just be, "Here's one joke, here's another joke." That's not my style. They all have to somehow link together.

John Bishop

No man should desire to be happy who is not at the same time holy. He should spend his efforts in seeking to know and do the will of God, leaving to Christ the matter of how happy he should be.

Aiden Wilson Tozer

When you say the name Gilligan, you know who that is. If a show is good, if it's written well, you should be able to erase the names of the characters saying the lines and still be able to know who said it. If you can't do that, the show will fail.

Sherwood Schwartz

When people cannot write good literature it is perhaps natural that they should lay down rules how good literature should be written.

George Saintsbury

We do not know whether it is good to live or to die. Therefore, we should not take delight in living, nor should we tremble at the thought of death. We should be equiminded towards death. This is the ideal. It may be long before we reach it, and only a few of us can attain it. Even then, we must keep it constantly in view, and the more difficult it seems of attainment, the greater should be the effort we put forth.

Mahatma Gandhi

The beginner should approach style warily, realizing that it is himself he is approaching, no other; and he should begin by turning resolutely away from all devices that are popularly believed to indicate style - all mannerisms, tricks, adornments. The approach to style is by way of plainness, simplicity, orderliness, sincerity.

E. B. White

A man's style should be like his dress. It should be as unobtrusive and should attract as little attention as possible.

C. E. M. Joad

In really good acting we should be able to believe that what we hear and see is of our own imagining; it should seem to be to us as a charming dream.

Joseph Joubert

Any good broadcast, not just an Olympic broadcast, should have texture to it. It should have information, should have some history, should have something that's offbeat, quirky, humorous, and where called for it, should have journalism, and judiciously it should also have commentary. That's my ideal.

Bob Costas

A stage set should not make a pretty picture of its own. The empty stage should look formal and pleasing, but should seem to be waiting for the action to complete it; it should not hold definite significance in itself.