"It is an illusion that youth is happy, an illusion of those who have lost it; but the young know they are wretched, for they are full of the truthless ideals which have been instilled into them, and each time they come in contact with the real they are bruised and wounded." da: Of Human Bondage, 1915.

(William Somerset Maugham, scrittore; Parigi, 25 gennaio 1874 – Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat, 16 dicembre 1965) 
foto: George Platt Lynes, Somerset Maugham & William Miller, 1941.