Maurice Baring

Maurice Baring (27 April 1874 – 14 December 1945) was a versatile English man of letters, known as a dramatist, poet, novelist, translator and essayist, and also as a travel writer and war correspondent.

Quotes

 * In Mozart and Salieri we see the contrast between the genius which does what it must and the talent which does what it can.
 * An Outline of Russian Literature (London: Williams and Norgate, 1914/15), Ch. II: "The New Age—Pushkin", p. 81.
 * Baring applies a "contrast" first made by Robert Bulwer-Lytton in Chronicles and Characters (London: Chapman and Hall, 1868), Vol. II, p. 302: "Genius does what it must, and Talent does what it can."


 * Lord Saint-Edith said he couldn't understand people thinking Bacon had written Shakespeare's plays. If they said Shakespeare had written the works of Bacon as a pastime he could understand it.
 * Passing By (London: Martin Secker, 1921), "From the Diary of Godfrey Mellor", March 17, 1908; p. 34.


 * [T]here is a vast difference between games and play. Play is played for fun, but games are deadly serious, and you do not play them to enjoy yourself.
 * The Puppet Show of Memory (London: William Heinemann, 1922), Ch. V: "School", p. 70.


 * Whoever one is, and wherever one is, one is always in the wrong if one is rude.
 * The Coat Without Seam (1929), Ch. VIII.


 * A good play is a play which, when acted upon the boards, makes an audience interested and pleased. A play that fails in this is a bad play.
 * Have You Anything to Declare? (London: William Heinemann, 1936), p. 285.


 * If you would know what the Lord God thinks of money, you have only to look at those to whom He gives it.
 * As quoted by Dorothy Parker in Marion Capron, "An Interview with Dorothy Parker", The Paris Review, Issue 13 (Summer 1956).

Orpheus in Mayfair (1909)

 * Orpheus in Mayfair and Other Stories and Sketches (London: Mills & Boon, Limited, 1909)


 * I wish I was dead, And lay deep in the grave. I've a pain in my head, I wish I was dead. In a coffin of lead— With the Wise and the Brave— I wish I was dead, And lay deep in the grave.
 * "Jean François", p. 39.


 * Thank God I'm alive In the light of the Sun! It's a quarter to five; Thank God I'm alive! Now the hum of the hive Of the world has begun, Thank God I'm alive In the light of the Sun!
 * "Jean François", p. 39.


 * Here's the lily, here the rose Her full chalice shall disclose; Here's narcissus wet with dew, Windflower and the violet blue. Wear the garland I have made; Crowned with it, put pride away; For the wreath that blooms must fade; Thou thyself must fade some day, Rhodocleia.
 * "The Garland", p. 113.