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W. Somerset Maugham's Quotes

W. Somerset Maugham profile photo

Born: 1970-01-01
Profession: Playwright
Nation: British
Biography of W. Somerset Maugham

See the gallery for quotes by W. Somerset Maugham. You can to use those 8 images of quotes as a desktop wallpapers.
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Beauty is an ecstasy; it is as simple as hunger. There is really nothing to be said about it. It is like the perfume of a rose: you can smell it and that is all.

Tags: Beauty, Said, Simple

Old age has its pleasures, which, though different, are not less than the pleasures of youth.

Tags: Age, Old, Youth

Any nation that thinks more of its ease and comfort than its freedom will soon lose its freedom; and the ironical thing about it is that it will lose its ease and comfort too.

Tags: Freedom, Lose, Nation

Money is the string with which a sardonic destiny directs the motions of its puppets.

Tags: Destiny, Money, String

There is no explanation for evil. It must be looked upon as a necessary part of the order of the universe. To ignore it is childish, to bewail it senseless.

Tags: Evil, Ignore, Universe

Have common sense and stick to the point.

Tags: Common, Point, Sense

If you want to eat well in England, eat three breakfasts.

Tags: Eat, Food, Three

I'll give you my opinion of the human race in a nutshell... their heart's in the right place, but their head is a thoroughly inefficient organ.

Tags: Give, Heart, Human

It is an illusion that youth is happy, an illusion of those who have lost it.

Tags: Happy, Lost, Youth

What makes old age hard to bear is not the failing of one's faculties, mental and physical, but the burden of one's memories.

Tags: Age, Hard, Old

Tolerance is another word for indifference.

Tags: Another, Tolerance, Word

Impropriety is the soul of wit.

Tags: Soul, Wit

Perfection is a trifle dull. It is not the least of life's ironies that this, which we all aim at, is better not quite achieved.

Tags: Life, Perfection, Quite

I made up my mind long ago that life was too short to do anything for myself that I could pay others to do for me.

Tags: Life, Mind, Others

Money is like a sixth sense without which you cannot make a complete use of the other five.

Tags: Cannot, Money, Sense

The great American novel has not only already been written, it has already been rejected.

Tags: American, Great, Written

We know our friends by their defects rather than by their merits.

Tags: Defects, Friends, Rather

You are not angry with people when you laugh at them. Humor teaches tolerance.

Tags: Angry, Humor, Laugh

No egoism is so insufferable as that of the Christian with regard to his soul.

Tags: Christian, Egoism, Soul

Like all weak men he laid an exaggerated stress on not changing one's mind.

Tags: Men, Mind, Stress

Sentimentality is the only sentiment that rubs you the wrong way.

Tags: Sentiment, Wrong

We learn resignation not by our own suffering, but by the suffering of others.

Tags: Learn, Others, Suffering

You can do anything in this world if you are prepared to take the consequences.

Tags: Prepared

My own belief is that there is hardly anyone whose sexual life, if it were broadcast, would not fill the world at large with surprise and horror.

Tags: Anyone, Belief, Life

The essence of the beautiful is unity in variety.

Tags: Beautiful, Essence, Unity

There are two good things in life - freedom of thought and freedom of action.

Tags: Freedom, Good, Life
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Tradition is a guide and not a jailer.

Tags: Guide, Jailer, Tradition

Few misfortunes can befall a boy which bring worse consequence than to have a really affectionate mother.

Tags: Bring, Few, Mother

Habits in writing as in life are only useful if they are broken as soon as they cease to be advantageous.

Tags: Broken, Life, Writing

It is well known that Beauty does not look with a good grace on the timid advances of Humour.

Tags: Beauty, Good, Grace

Men have an extraordinarily erroneous opinion of their position in nature; and the error is ineradicable.

Tags: Men, Nature, Opinion

Old age is ready to undertake tasks that youth shirked because they would take too long.

Tags: Age, Old, Youth

The ability to quote is a serviceable substitute for wit.

Tags: Ability, Substitute, Wit

The artist produces for the liberation of his soul. It is his nature to create as it is the nature of water to run down the hill.

Tags: Artist, Nature, Soul

When you are young you take the kindness people show you as your right.

Tags: Kindness, Show, Young

Writing is the supreme solace.

Tags: Solace, Supreme, Writing

You know what the critics are. If you tell the truth they only say you're cynical and it does an author no good to get a reputation for cynicism.

Tags: Good, Tell, Truth

Anyone can tell the truth, but only very few of us can make epigrams.

Tags: Few, Tell, Truth

Considering how foolishly people act and how pleasantly they prattle, perhaps it would be better for the world if they talked more and did less.

Tags: Act, Less, Perhaps

Death doesn't affect the living because it has not happened yet. Death doesn't concern the dead because they have ceased to exist.

Tags: Dead, Death, Living

I would sooner read a time-table or a catalogue than nothing at all. They are much more entertaining than half the novels that are written.

Tags: Half, Read, Written

In Hollywood, the women are all peaches. It makes one long for an apple occasionally.

Tags: Hollywood, Makes, Women

It is salutary to train oneself to be no more affected by censure than by praise.

Tags: Oneself, Praise, Train

It is unsafe to take your reader for more of a fool than he is.

Tags: Fool, Reader, Unsafe

It seems that the creative faculty and the critical faculty cannot exist together in their highest perfection.

Tags: Cannot, Creative, Together

It's very hard to be a gentleman and a writer.

Tags: Gentleman, Hard, Writer

Perfection has one grave defect: it is apt to be dull.

Tags: Dull, Grave, Perfection

The crown of literature is poetry.

Tags: Crown, Literature, Poetry

The most useful thing about a principle is that it can always be sacrificed to expediency.

Tags: Expediency, Principle, Useful

The trouble with young writers is that they are all in their sixties.

Tags: Trouble, Writers, Young

The world is quickly bored by the recital of misfortune, and willing avoids the sight of distress.

Tags: Bored, Sight, Willing

The writer is more concerned to know than to judge.

Tags: Concerned, Judge, Writer

The writer of prose can only step aside when the poet passes.

Tags: Poet, Step, Writer

We have long passed the Victorian Era when asterisks were followed after a certain interval by a baby.

Tags: After, Baby, Era

The world in general doesn't know what to make of originality; it is startled out of its comfortable habits of thought, and its first reaction is one of anger.

Tags: Anger, General, Thought

Let us develop the resources of our land, call forth its powers, build up its institutions, promote all its great interests, and see whether we also, in our day and generation, may not perform something worthy to be remembered.

Tags: Great, May, Whether

When I read a book I seem to read it with my eyes only, but now and then I come across a passage, perhaps only a phrase, which has a meaning for me, and it becomes part of me.

Tags: Book, Eyes, Read

Things were easier for the old novelists who saw people all of a piece. Speaking generally, their heroes were good through and through, their villains wholly bad.

Tags: Bad, Good, Old

What has influenced my life more than any other single thing has been my stammer. Had I not stammered I would probably... have gone to Cambridge as my brothers did, perhaps have become a don and every now and then published a dreary book about French literature.

Tags: Book, Life, Single

In the country the darkness of night is friendly and familiar, but in a city, with its blaze of lights, it is unnatural, hostile and menacing. It is like a monstrous vulture that hovers, biding its time.

Tags: Friendly, Night, Time

We are not the same persons this year as last; nor are those we love. It is a happy chance if we, changing, continue to love a changed person.

Tags: Anniversary, Happy, Love

When you choose your friends, don't be short-changed by choosing personality over character.

Tags: Character, Friends, Friendship

It's a funny thing about life; if you refuse to accept anything but the best, you very often get it.

Tags: Best, Funny, Life

There are three rules for writing a novel. Unfortunately, no one knows what they are.

Tags: Knows, Three, Writing

Love is only a dirty trick played on us to achieve continuation of the species.

Tags: Achieve, Dirty, Love

Every production of an artist should be the expression of an adventure of his soul.

Tags: Art, Artist, Soul

The common idea that success spoils people by making them vain, egotistic and self-complacent is erroneous; on the contrary it makes them, for the most part, humble, tolerant and kind.

Tags: Humble, Makes, Success

A man marries to have a home, but also because he doesn't want to be bothered with sex and all that sort of thing.

Tags: Home, Marriage, Sex

Marriage is a very good thing, but I think it's a mistake to make a habit out of it.

Tags: Good, Marriage, Mistake

If a nation values anything more than freedom, it will lose its freedom, and the irony of it is that if it is comfort or money that it values more, it will lose that too.

Tags: Freedom, Lose, Money

An unfortunate thing about this world is that the good habits are much easier to give up than the bad ones.

Tags: Bad, Give, Good

Death is a very dull, dreary affair, and my advice to you is to have nothing whatsoever to do with it.

Tags: Advice, Affair, Death

Only a mediocre person is always at his best.

Tags: Best, Mediocre

At a dinner party one should eat wisely but not too well, and talk well but not too wisely.

Tags: Party, Talk

Imagination grows by exercise, and contrary to common belief, is more powerful in the mature than in the young.

Tags: Imagination, Powerful, Young

Excess on occasion is exhilarating. It prevents moderation from acquiring the deadening effect of a habit.

Tags: Effect, Habit, Moderation

The love that lasts longest is the love that is never returned.

Tags: Lasts, Longest, Love

It wasn't until late in life that I discovered how easy it is to say, 'I don't know.'

Tags: Easy, Life, Until

It's no good trying to keep up old friendships. It's painful for both sides. The fact is, one grows out of people, and the only thing is to face it.

Tags: Good, Old, Trying

It is not wealth one asks for, but just enough to preserve one's dignity, to work unhampered, to be generous, frank and independent.

Tags: Enough, Wealth, Work

If you don't change your beliefs, your life will be like this forever. Is that good news?

Tags: Change, Good, Life

People ask for criticism, but they only want praise.

Tags: Ask, Criticism, Praise

It is not true that suffering ennobles the character; happiness does that sometimes, but suffering for the most part, makes men petty and vindictive.

Tags: Character, Happiness, Men

It was such a lovely day I thought it a pity to get up.

Tags: Lovely, Pity, Thought

I can imagine no more comfortable frame of mind for the conduct of life than a humorous resignation.

Tags: Imagine, Life, Mind
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