Max Beerbohm
Title: Sir Henry Maximilian Beerbohm
Full Name: Henry Maximilian Beerbohm
Birthdate: August 24, 1872
Birthplace: London, England, United Kingdom
Date of Death: May 20, 1956
Occupation: Author and Caricaturist
Profile: Best known for
Zuleika Dobson; or, An Oxford Love Story and
Seven Men. Knighted in 1939.
Website: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Max_Beerbohm
Number of Quotes: 49
A hundred eyes were fixed on her, and half as many hearts lost to her.
Zuleika Dobson; or, An Oxford Love Story (1911).
A sense of beauty... is the gift of the gods to men: a very doubtful gift.
The Pervasion of Rouge (1894) and The Works of Max Beerholm (1896).
Anything that is worth doing has been done frequently. Things hitherto undone should be given, I suspect, a wide berth.
1880 (1895) and The Works of Max Beerholm (1896).
As a teacher, as a propagandist, Mr. Shaw is no good at all, even in his own generation. But as a personality, he is immortal.
Enoch Soames (1916) and Seven Men (1919).
But the dullard’s envy of brilliant men is always assuaged by the suspicion that they will come to a bad end.
Zuleika Dobson; or, An Oxford Love Story (1911).
Conceit, Egotism, and Vanity. To say that a man is vain means merely that he is pleased with the effect he produces on other people.
And Even Now (1920).
Consistency is contrary to nature, contrary to life. The only completely consistent people are the dead.
And Even Now (1920).
Death, as he had said, cancelled all engagements.
Zuleika Dobson; or, An Oxford Love Story (1911).
Death cancels all engagements.
Zuleika Dobson; or, An Oxford Love Story (1911).
Good sense about trivialities is better than nonsense about things that matter.
The Yellow Book (April 1894) and The Works of Max Beerholm (February 1896).
Have you noticed ... there is never any third act in a nightmare? They bring you to a
climax of terror and then leave you there. They are the work of poor dramatists.
Hilary Maltby and Stephen Braxton (1916) and Seven Men (1919).
History does not repeat itself. The historians repeat one another.
Paraphrase from The Pervasion of Rouge (1894) and The Works of Max Beerholm (1896).
History repeats itself. Historians repeat each other.
The Pervasion of Rouge (1894) and The Works of Max Beerholm (1896).
Humility is a virtue, and it is a virtue innate in guests.
Zuleika Dobson; or, An Oxford Love Story (1911).
I am a Tory Anarchist. I should like every one to go about doing just as he pleased — short of altering any of the things to which I have grown accustomed.
Servants (1918).
I have known no man of genius who had not to pay, in some affliction or defect either physical or spiritual, for what the gods had given him.
William and Mary (1920) and And Even Now (1920).
I was a modest, good-humoured boy. It is Oxford that has made me insufferable.
Enoch Soames (1916) and Seven Men (1919).
Improvisation is the essence of good talk. Heaven defend us from the talker who doles out things prepared for us!
Mainly on the Air (1946).
It is the privilege of nobility to condescend.
Zuleika Dobson; or, An Oxford Love Story (1911).
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.
The Pervasion of Rouge (1894) and The Works of Max Beerholm (1896).
Most women are not so young as they are painted.
The Pervasion of Rouge (1894) and The Works of Max Beerholm (1896).
No fine work can be done without concentration and self-sacrifice and toil and doubt.
A Clergyman (1918) and And Even Now (1920).
No Roman ever was able to say, I dined last night with the Borgias
.
The Yellow Book (April 1894) and The Works of Max Beerholm (February 1896).
Nobody ever died of laughter.
Laughter (1920) and And Even Now (1920).
Of all the emotions, hatred is the most excruciating. Of all the objects of hatred, a woman once loved is the most hateful.
Zuleika Dobson; or, An Oxford Love Story (1911).
One can't complain of Ibsen's popularity. It is his punishment.
A Christmas Garland (1912).
One might well say that mankind is divisible into two great classes: hosts and guests.
Hosts and Guests (1917–1919) and And Even Now (1920).
Only mediocrity can be trusted to be always at its best.
The Golden Drugget (1918) and And Even Now (1920).
People are either born hosts or born guests.
Hosts and Guests (1917–1919) and And Even Now (1920).
People who insist on telling their dreams are among the terrors of the breakfast table.
Quia Imperfectum (1917–1918) and And Even Now (1920).
She was one of those who are born to make chaos cosmic.
Zuleika Dobson; or, An Oxford Love Story (1911).
Some people are born to lift heavy weights, some are born to juggle golden balls.
William and Mary (1920) and And Even Now (1920).
Strange, when you come to think of it, that of all the countless folk who have lived before
our time on this planet not one is known in history or in legend as having died of laughter.
Laughter (1920).
The delicate balance between modesty and conceit is popularity.
Notebooks (Posthumously published in 1954).
The devil is an optimist if he thinks he can make people worse than they are.
Zuleika Dobson; or, An Oxford Love Story (1911).
The dullard’s envy of brilliant men is always assuaged by the suspicion that they will come to a bad end.
Zuleika Dobson; or, An Oxford Love Story (1911).
The Non-Conformist Conscience makes cowards of us all.
And Even Now (1920).
The past is a work of art, free of irrelevancies and loose ends.
A Christmas Garland (1912).
The public has always, and in every age, been wrong.
And Even Now (1920).
The true conjurer finds his guerdon in the consciousness of work done perfectly and for its own sake.
Zuleika Dobson; or, An Oxford Love Story (1911).
The truth is always something that is told, not something that is known. If there were no
speaking or writing, there would be no truth about anything. There would only be what is.
And Even Now (1920).
There is much to be said for failure. It is much more interesting than success.
Mainly on the Air (1946).
To give an accurate and exhaustive account of that period would need a far less brilliant pen than mine.
Seven Men (1919).
To give and then not feel that one has given is the very best of all ways of giving.
And Even Now (1920).
To mankind in general Macbeth and Lady Macbeth stand out as the supreme type of all that a host and hostess should not be.
Hosts and Guests (1917–1919) and And Even Now (1920).
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.
And Even Now (1920).
Vulgarity has its uses. Vulgarity often cuts ice which refinement scrapes at vainly.
Dandies and Dandies (1894) and The Works of Max Beerholm (1896).
You cannot make a man by standing a sheep on its hind-legs. But by standing a flock of sheep in that position you can make a crowd of men.
Zuleika Dobson; or, An Oxford Love Story (1911).
You will find that the woman who is really kind to dogs is always one who has failed to inspire sympathy in men.
Zuleika Dobson; or, An Oxford Love Story (1911).
Last on Earth
