W. Somerset Maugham Quotes

The sad Don Quixote of a worthless purpose.

W. Somerset Maugham

• Purpose
• Sad

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Quotes to Explore

• Sometimes I think people get into trouble because they can't say what they want to.

  

  Quentin Blake
  • People
  • Think
  • Want

• My father is a silent cinema freak, so he took me to 1925 silent films that took forever, like 5-hour movies, but I've seen a lot of that stuff since I was young. And then I saw the film 'Annie,' and I just wanted to be Annie; I just wanted to be that orphan kid and wanted to sing and dance.

  

  Carice van Houten
  • Father
  • Forever
  • Dance

• For me, a play is a form of writing which isn't complete until it is interpreted by actors. But it's still a form of writing. And so most of my time is spent thinking about how to write a sentence.

  

  Wallace Shawn
  • Time
  • Thinking
  • Writing

• I have felt that connection and stewardship for Earth for as long as I can remember. And not just for Earth, but the whole universe.

  

  Kalpana Chawla
  • Long
  • Remember
  • Earth

• You know, I don't really understand a suburban environment. I want to be out in the woods, I want to be where it's wild, I want to wake up and hear birds, I want to walk outside and see a gaggle of turkeys bouncing across my lawn - I want to be someplace like that - or I want to be right in the middle of an urban environment.

  

  Karen Allen
  • Up
  • Environment
  • Wake Up

• A president who aspires to be recognized as a global leader should not personally stake out a foreign-policy goal, commit himself eloquently to its attainment, and then yield the ground when confronted by firm opposition.

  

  Zbigniew Brzezinski
  • Goal
  • Leader
  • Yield

• If you eat something and get fat, you should be responsible for it. I think that is the attitude of the great majority of Americans, that you should be responsible for what you eat.

  

  Vic Snyder
  • Great
  • Attitude
  • Fat

• A lizard is a perfect pet for a model. They only need feeding once a fortnight. And I'm always travelling, so it's perfect. If I had a dog, it would drop dead of starvation.

  

  Abbey Lee Kershaw
  • Perfect
  • Model
  • Dog

• I write and rewrite and rewrite and write and like to turn in what I think is finished work.

  

  Gay Talese
  • Work
  • Think
  • Turn

• By turning your eyes on God in meditation, your whole soul will be filled with God. Begin all your prayers in the presence of God.

  

  Saint Francis de Sales
  • God
  • Soul
  • Eyes

• Hollywood so often likes to make movies that are just about itself. I felt there were a lot of stories that were yet to be told in the middle of the country, and I wanted to capture some of that beauty.

  

  Sam Jaeger
  • Country
  • Beauty
  • Movies

• Yes, Heathrow is the U.K.'s busiest airport, but new runways or a new airport are not the answer. It is far better to focus on improving capacity.

  

  Zac Goldsmith
  • Focus
  • Better
  • New

• Unless you consider yourself some sort of human brand, which I don't, you have to deal with the fact that different people are going to like different aspects of your work. It's not consistent. I am not consistent. But I feel OK with that.

  

  Zadie Smith
  • Work
  • Human
  • Brand

• Tom DeLay may or may not have broken campaign finance laws, but he did his best to look like he was breaking them.

  

  P. J. O'Rourke
  • May
  • Best
  • Broken

• For most of my life, I have eaten to deal with stress.

  

  Barney Frank
  • Life
  • My Life
  • Stress

• Nature is trying very hard to make us succeed, but nature does not depend on us. We are not the only experiment.

  

  R. Buckminster Fuller
  • Trying
  • Nature
  • Succeed

• The best thing you can do for your body is sleep. It's simple. Cater to your body as much as to your mind. Your body, after all, houses your mind. You have to pay attention to your physicality as much as your mentality.

  

  Kajol
  • Mind
  • Attention
  • Simple

• You see, 30 years ago I didn't have near the audience I have now. My tapes on the cults have reached a circulation of 15 million. those are not my figures but the figures of the people who distribute them.

  

  Walter Martin
  • People
  • Audience
  • See

• It is the system, rather than individuals, that is the source of pollution and degradation. My prison-house environment is but another manifestation of the Midas-hand, whose cursed touch turns everything to the brutal service of Mammon.

  

  Alexander Berkman
  • House
  • Hand
  • Environment

• My characters are not thinking about the act breaks. They're thinking about what they need to do to move forward. As long as I focus on that, the story starts to progress. As soon as I think, 'We're 20 pages in, something better blow up,' we're in trouble.

  

  Jeff Nichols
  • Up
  • Thinking
  • Long

• People do lose weight on an Atkins diet. The reason they lose weight is because of calorie reduction. If a person's caloric intake has not fallen, if they are really shoveling in the steak, they don't lose weight.

  

  Neal Barnard
  • People
  • Reason
  • Atkins

• We have these rules, the 'hero rules.' Like, a hero doesn't slouch. A hero walks proudly with his head up. A hero walks with a purpose. A hero's always a gentleman.

  

  John Singleton
  • Up
  • Purpose
  • Hero

• Life is short, art long, opportunity fleeting, experiment uncertain, and judgment difficult.

  

  Hippocrates
  • Life is
  • Experiment
  • Judgement

• The sad Don Quixote of a worthless purpose.

  

  W. Somerset Maugham
  • Purpose
  • Sad