Morning Reading

The Back of Beyond (story) by W. Somerset Maugham. (kindle and Audible audiobook).

I read not so much for plot, but for language. I noted this passage when reading:

"I haven't deeply considered the matter," smiled George Moon, "but if to look truth in the face and not resent it when it's unpalatable, and take human nature as you find it, smiling when it's absurd and grieved without exaggeration when it's pitiful is to be cynical, then I suppose I'm a cynic. Mostly human nature is absurd and pitiful, but if life has taught you tolerance you find in it more to smile at than to weep."

However, I also cringed when I read this passage:

"You're behaving generously, old boy, and, you know one needs a devil of a lot of tact to get people to get people to forgive one one's generosity. Fortunately women are frivolous and they very quickly forget the benefits conferred upon them. Otherwise, of course, there'd be no living with them."