Somerset Maugham ... wrote somewhere that "Nobody is any better than he ought to be." ... I carried it along with me as a working philosophy, but I suppose that finally I would have to take exception to the thought ... or else the universe is just an elaborate clock. (Norman Mailer)

Somerset Maugham ... wrote somewhere that "Nobody is any better than he ought to be." ... I carried it along with me as a working philosophy, but I suppose that finally I would have to take exception to the thought ... or else the universe is just an elaborate clock.

Norman Mailer

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carry clock exception nobody ought philosophy somerset somewhere suppose take thought universe working maugham

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