W. Somerset Maugham Quotes
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There is only one thing about which I am certain, and this is that there is very little about which one can be certain.
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We learn resignation not by our own suffering, but by the suffering of others.
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Remember that it is nothing to do your duty, that is demanded of you and is no more meritorious than to wash your hands when they are dirty; the only thing that counts is the love of duty; when love and duty are one, then grace is in you and you will enjoy a happiness which passes all understanding.
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D'you call life a bad job? Never! We've had our ups and downs, we've had our struggles, we've always been poor, but it's been worth it, ay, worth it a hundred times I say when I look round at my children.
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Of course it was cause and effect, but in the necessity with which follows the other lay all tragedy of life.
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Habits in writing as in life are only useful if they are broken as soon as they cease to be advantageous.
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The value of money is that with it we can tell any man to go to the devil. It is the sixth sense which enables you to enjoy the other five.
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Life wouldn't be worth living if I worried over the future as well as the present. When things are at their worst I find something always happens.
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He had heard people speak contemptuously of money: he wondered if they had ever tried to do without it.
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Tahiti is very far away, and I knew that I should never see it again. A chapter of my life was closed, and I felt a little nearer to inevitable death.
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He had doubts about the utility of examination on subjects which had been crammed for the occasion. He wanted common sense.
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People ask for criticism, but they only want praise.
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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.
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Women are always glad to listen when you discourse upon love...
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I've met so many people, often the scum of the earth, and found them, you know, quite decent. I am an uncomfortable stranger to moral indignation.
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When she liked anyone it was quite natural for her to go to bed with him. She never thought twice about it. It was not vice; it wasn't lasciviousness; it was her nature. She gave herself as naturally as the sun gives heat or the flowers their perfume. It was a pleasure to her and she liked to give pleasure to others.
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Throw yourself into the hurly-burly of life. It doesn't matter how many mistakes you make, what unhappiness you have to undergo. It is all your material ... Don't wait for experience to come to you; go out after experience. Experience is your material.
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He did not care if she was heartless, vicious and vulgar, stupid and grasping, he loved her. He would rather have misery with one than happiness with the other.
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Passion doesn't count the cost. … Passion is destructive.
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He had a bitter pain in his heart, for he knew that she was still a stranger to him and his hungry love was destined ever to remain unsatisfied.
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But who can fathom the subtleties of the human heart? Certainly not those who expect from it only decorous sentiments and normal emotions.
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The first duty of a woman is to be pretty, the second is to be well-groomed, and the third is never to contradict.
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I thought I should be a fool to allow work to interfere with a delight in the passing moment that I might never enjoy again so fully.
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Do you know that conversation is one of the greatest pleasures in life? But it wants leisure.