W. Somerset Maugham Quotes
"The essence of the beautiful is unity in variety."
- W. Somerset Maugham
(Related: Unity, Variety)
"The great American novel has not only already been written, it has already been rejected."
- W. Somerset Maugham
(Related: American)
"The love that lasts longest is the love that is never returned."
- W. Somerset Maugham
(Related: Love)
"The most useful thing about a principle is that it can always be sacrificed to expediency."
- W. Somerset Maugham
(Related: Expediency)
"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."
- W. Somerset Maugham
(Related: Success, People, Idea, Self)
"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."
- W. Somerset Maugham
(Related: Anger, Thought, First, Habits, Originality, World)
"People ask for criticism, but they only want praise."
- W. Somerset Maugham
(Related: People, Criticism, Praise, Want)
"The world is quickly bored by the recital of misfortune, and willing avoids the sight of distress."
- W. Somerset Maugham
(Related: Misfortune, Sight, World)
"The trouble with young writers is that they are all in their sixties."
- W. Somerset Maugham
(Related: Trouble, Writers)
"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."
- W. Somerset Maugham
(Related: Nature, Soul, Artist, Water)
"The ability to quote is a serviceable substitute for wit."
- W. Somerset Maugham
(Related: Ability, Wit)
"She had a pretty gift for quotation, which is a serviceable substitute for wit."
- W. Somerset Maugham
(Related: Pretty, Quotation, Wit)
"Sentimentality is the only sentiment that rubs you the wrong way."
- W. Somerset Maugham
(Related: Sentiment, Sentimentality, Wrong)
"Perfection has one grave defect: it is apt to be dull."
- W. Somerset Maugham
(Related: Grave, Perfection)
"Only a mediocre person is always at his best."
- W. Somerset Maugham
"No egoism is so insufferable as that of the Christian with regard to his soul."
- W. Somerset Maugham
(Related: Soul, Christian)
"Old age is ready to undertake tasks that youth shirked because they would take too long."
- W. Somerset Maugham
(Related: Age, Old, Youth)
"Old age has its pleasures, which, though different, are not less than the pleasures of youth."
- W. Somerset Maugham
(Related: Age, Old, Youth)
"The writer is more concerned to know than to judge."
- W. Somerset Maugham
(Related: Writer)
"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."
- W. Somerset Maugham
(Related: Life, Perfection, Trifle)
"We learn resignation not by our own suffering, but by the suffering of others."
- W. Somerset Maugham
(Related: Resignation, Suffering)
"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."
- W. Somerset Maugham
(Related: Life, Belief, Horror, World)
"It is not wealth one asks for, but just enough to preserve one's dignity, to work unhampered, to be generous, frank and independent."
- W. Somerset Maugham
(Related: Work, Wealth, Dignity)
"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."
- W. Somerset Maugham
(Related: Truth, Cynicism, Reputation)
"You are not angry with people when you laugh at them. Humor teaches tolerance."
- W. Somerset Maugham
(Related: Humor, People, Tolerance)
"Writing is the supreme solace."
- W. Somerset Maugham
(Related: Writing)
"When you choose your friends, don't be short-changed by choosing personality over character."
- W. Somerset Maugham
(Related: Character, Friends, Personality)
"When you are young you take the kindness people show you as your right."
- W. Somerset Maugham
(Related: People, Kindness, Right)
"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."
- W. Somerset Maugham
(Related: Eyes, Meaning, Now)
"You can do anything in this world if you are prepared to take the consequences."
- W. Somerset Maugham
(Related: Consequences, World)
"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."
- W. Somerset Maugham
(Related: Life, Brothers, Literature, Now)
"The writer of prose can only step aside when the poet passes."
- W. Somerset Maugham
(Related: Prose, Writer)
"We know our friends by their defects rather than by their merits."
- W. Somerset Maugham
(Related: Friends)
"We have long passed the Victorian Era when asterisks were followed after a certain interval by a baby."
- W. Somerset Maugham
(Related: Baby)
"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."
- W. Somerset Maugham
(Related: Love, Chance)
"Tradition is a guide and not a jailer."
- W. Somerset Maugham
(Related: Tradition)
"Tolerance is another word for indifference."
- W. Somerset Maugham
(Related: Indifference, Tolerance, Word)
"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."
- W. Somerset Maugham
(Related: People, Heroes, Old)
"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."
- W. Somerset Maugham
(Related: Evil, Order, Universe)
"There are two good things in life - freedom of thought and freedom of action."
- W. Somerset Maugham
(Related: Life, Thought, Action, Freedom)
"There are three rules for writing a novel. Unfortunately, no one knows what they are."
- W. Somerset Maugham
(Related: Rules, Writing)
"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."
- W. Somerset Maugham
(Related: Age, Burden, Memories, Old)
"Death is a very dull, dreary affair, and my advice to you is to have nothing whatsoever to do with it."
- W. Somerset Maugham
(Related: Death, Advice, Nothing)
"If you want to eat well in England, eat three breakfasts."
- W. Somerset Maugham
(Related: England, Want)
"If you don't change your beliefs, your life will be like this forever. Is that good news?"
- W. Somerset Maugham
(Related: Change, Life, Beliefs, News, Will)
"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."
- W. Somerset Maugham
(Related: Money, Values, Comfort, Freedom, Irony, Nation, Will)
"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."
- W. Somerset Maugham
(Related: Heart, Opinion, Race, Right)
"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."
- W. Somerset Maugham
(Related: Time, Nothing)
"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."
- W. Somerset Maugham
(Related: Life, Mind)
"I can imagine no more comfortable frame of mind for the conduct of life than a humorous resignation."
- W. Somerset Maugham
(Related: Life, Mind, Resignation)
"Have common sense and stick to the point."
- W. Somerset Maugham
(Related: Common sense)
"Imagination grows by exercise, and contrary to common belief, is more powerful in the mature than in the young."
- W. Somerset Maugham
(Related: Imagination, Belief, Exercise)
"Excess on occasion is exhilarating. It prevents moderation from acquiring the deadening effect of a habit."
- W. Somerset Maugham
(Related: Habit, Effect, Excess, Moderation)
"Few misfortunes can befall a boy which bring worse consequence than to have a really affectionate mother."
- W. Somerset Maugham
(Related: Mother)
"Death doesn't affect the living because it has not happened yet. Death doesn't concern the dead because they have ceased to exist."
- W. Somerset Maugham
(Related: Death, Concern, Living)
"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."
- W. Somerset Maugham
(Related: People, Act, World)
"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."
- W. Somerset Maugham
(Related: Beauty, Ecstasy, Hunger, Nothing)
"At a dinner party one should eat wisely but not too well, and talk well but not too wisely."
- W. Somerset Maugham
(Related: Party, Talk)
"Anyone can tell the truth, but only very few of us can make epigrams."
- W. Somerset Maugham
(Related: Truth, Epigrams)
"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."
- W. Somerset Maugham
(Related: Comfort, Freedom, Nation, Will)
"An unfortunate thing about this world is that the good habits are much easier to give up than the bad ones."
- W. Somerset Maugham
(Related: Habits, World)
"It is unsafe to take your reader for more of a fool than he is."
- W. Somerset Maugham
(Related: Fool)
"Money is the string with which a sardonic destiny directs the motions of its puppets."
- W. Somerset Maugham
(Related: Money, Destiny)
"Habits in writing as in life are only useful if they are broken as soon as they cease to be advantageous."
- W. Somerset Maugham
(Related: Life, Habits, Writing)
"It was such a lovely day I thought it a pity to get up."
- W. Somerset Maugham
(Related: Thought, Day, Pity)
"Impropriety is the soul of wit."
- W. Somerset Maugham
(Related: Soul, Wit)
"Marriage is a very good thing, but I think it's a mistake to make a habit out of it."
- W. Somerset Maugham
(Related: Marriage, Mistake, Habit)
"Love is only a dirty trick played on us to achieve continuation of the species."
- W. Somerset Maugham
(Related: Love)
"Like all weak men he laid an exaggerated stress on not changing one's mind."
- W. Somerset Maugham
(Related: Men, Mind, Stress)
"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."
- W. Somerset Maugham
(Related: Day, Land, May)
"It's very hard to be a gentleman and a writer."
- W. Somerset Maugham
(Related: Gentleman, Writer)
"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."
- W. Somerset Maugham
(Related: People, Fact, Old, Trying)
"It's a funny thing about life; if you refuse to accept anything but the best, you very often get it."
- W. Somerset Maugham
(Related: Funny, Life)
"Every production of an artist should be the expression of an adventure of his soul."
- W. Somerset Maugham
(Related: Soul, Adventure, Artist, Expression, Production)
"It wasn't until late in life that I discovered how easy it is to say "I don't know.""
- W. Somerset Maugham
(Related: Life)
"Men have an extraordinarily erroneous opinion of their position in nature; and the error is ineradicable."
- W. Somerset Maugham
(Related: Men, Nature, Error, Opinion)
"It seems that the creative faculty and the critical faculty cannot exist together in their highest perfection."
- W. Somerset Maugham
(Related: Perfection)
"It is well known that Beauty does not look with a good grace on the timid advances of Humour."
- W. Somerset Maugham
(Related: Beauty, Grace)
"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."
- W. Somerset Maugham
(Related: Home, Sex, Man, Want)
"It is salutary to train oneself to be no more affected by censure than by praise."
- W. Somerset Maugham
(Related: Censure, Praise)
"Money is like a sixth sense without which you cannot make a complete use of the other five."
- W. Somerset Maugham
(Related: Money, Sense)
"It is not true that suffering ennobles the character; happiness does that sometimes, but suffering for the most part, makes men petty and vindictive."
- W. Somerset Maugham
(Related: Happiness, Men, Character, Suffering)
"It is an illusion that youth is happy, an illusion of those who have lost it."
- W. Somerset Maugham
(Related: Illusion, Youth)
"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."
- W. Somerset Maugham
(Related: Time, Country, Darkness, Night)
"In Hollywood, the women are all peaches. It makes one long for an apple occasionally."
- W. Somerset Maugham
(Related: Women, Hollywood)