W. Somerset Maugham Quotes
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If you don't change your beliefs, your life will be like this forever. Is that good news?
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The day broke grey and dull. The clouds hung heavily, and there was a rawness in the air that suggested snow. A woman servant came into a room in which a child was sleeping and drew the curtains. She glanced mechanically at the house opposite, a stucco house with a portico, and went to the child's bed.
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I forget who it was that recommended men for their soul’s good to do each day two things they disliked: it was a wise man, and it is a precept that I have followed scrupulously; for every day I have got up and I have gone to bed.
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The writer of prose can only step aside when the poet passes.
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It was like making a blunder at a party; there was nothing to do about it, it was dreadfully mortifying, but it showed a lack of sense to ascribe too much importance to it.
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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.
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It may be that if I lead the life I've planned for myself it may affect others; the effect may be no greater than the ripple caused by a stone thrown in a pond, but one ripple causes another.
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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.
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To eat well in England, you should have a breakfast three times a day.
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It's no use crying over spilt milk, because all of the forces of the universe were bent on spilling it.
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A god that can be understood is not a god.
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You know that the Tasmanians, who never committed adultery, are now extinct.
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Few misfortunes can befall a boy which bring worse consequence than to have a really affectionate mother.
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I don't think of the past. The only thing that matters is the everlasting present.
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The passing moment is all we can be sure of; it is only common sense to extract its utmost value from it.
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Money is like a sixth sense without which you cannot make a complete use of the other five.
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I was astonished to see him in Baghdad, for I had an appointment with him tonight in Samarra.
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He knew that women appreciated neither irony nor sarcasm, but simple jokes and funny stories. He was amply provided with both.
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It is salutary to train oneself to be no more affected by censure than by praise.
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The love that lasts longest is the love that is never returned.
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Conscience is the guardian in the individual of the rules which the community has evolved for its own preservation.
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Death is a very dull, dreary affair, and my advice to you is to have nothing whatsoever to do with it.
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The writer is more concerned to know than to judge.
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He loved her so passionately he wanted her to be one soul and one body with him; and he was conscious that here, with those deep roots attaching her to the native life, she would always keep something from him.