W. Somerset Maugham Quotes
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It is not for nothing that artists have called their works the children of their brains and likened the pains of production to the pains of childbirth.
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For my part I cannot believe in a God who is angry with me because I do not believe in him. I cannot believe in a God who is less tolerant than I. I cannot believe in a God who has neither humour nor common sense.
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Usage is the only test. I prefer a phrase that is easy and unaffected to a phrase that is grammatical.
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A man ought to work. That's what he's here for. That's how he contributes to the welfare of the community.
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Man has always sacrificed truth to his vanity, comfort and advantage. He lives not by truth but by make-believe.
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I promised myself that if ever I had some money that I would savor a cigar each day after lunch and dinner. This is the only resolution of my youth that I have kept, and the only realized ambition which has not brought disillusion.
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Do you absolutely despise me, Walter?" "No." He hesitated and his voice was strange. "I despise myself.
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The spirit is often most free when the body is satiated with pleasure; indeed, sometimes the stars shine more brightly seen from the gutter than from the hilltop.
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You know, the Philistines have long since discarded the rack and stake as a means of suppressing the opinions they feared: they've discovered a much more deadly weapon of destruction -- the wisecrack.
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I am afraid of people with too much charm. They devour you. In the end you are made a sacrifice to the exercise of their fascinating gift and their insincerity.
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The ideas for stories that thronged my brain would not let me rest till I had got rid of them by writing them.
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There's nothing the world loves more than a ready-made description which they can hang on to a man, and so save themselves all trouble in future.
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I can only guess that it made the world he went back to...strangely without meaning. Though he lived in it, though he even enjoyed it, it remained utterly remote. I think it had lost sense for him. In his heart was the reflection of a lovely dream that he could never quite recall.
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The audience is not the least important actor in the play and if it will not do its allotted share the play falls to pieces.
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I am told that today rather more than 60 per cent of the men who go to the universities go on a Government grant. This is a new class that has entered upon the scene ... They are scum.
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What does democracy come down to? The persuasive power of slogans invented by wily self-seeking politicians.