W. Somerset Maugham Quotes
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They say a woman always remembers her first lover with affection; but perhaps she does not always remember him.
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I have an idea that the only thing which makes it possible to regard this world we live in without disgust is the beauty which now and then men create out of the chaos.
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The life force is vigorous. The delight that accompanies it counter-balances all the pains and hardships that confront men. It makes life worth living.
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Life is really very fantastic, and one has to have a peculiar sense of humour to see the fun of it. [Virtue]
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Insensibly he formed the most delightful habit in the world, the habit of reading: he did not know that thus he was providing himself with a refuge from all the distress of life; he did not know either that he was creating for himself an unreal world which would make the real world of every day a source of bitter disappointment.
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There are many foolish people in the world and when a man in a rather high position puts on no frills, slaps them on the back, and tells them he'll do anything in the world for them, they are very likely to think him clever.
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But when all was said the important thing was to love rather than to be loved.
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I know that you're selfish, selfish beyond words, and I know that you haven't the nerve of a rabbit, I know you're a liar and a humbug, I know that you're utterly contemptible. And the tragic part is'--her face was on a sudden distraught with pain--'the tragic part is that notwithstanding I love you with all my heart.
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We find things beautiful because we recognize them and contrariwise we find things beautiful because their novelty surprises us.
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Because women can do nothing except love, they've given it a ridiculous importance. They want to persuade us that it's the whole of life. It's an insignificant part.
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She could not admit but that he had remarkable qualities, sometimes she thought that there was even in him a strange and unattractive greatness; it was curious then that she could not love him, but loved still a man whose worthlessness was now so clear to her.
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The great American novel has not only already been written, it has already been rejected.
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It has amazed me that the most incongruous traits should exist in the same person and, for all that, yield a plausible harmony.
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Charm and nothing but charm at last grows a little tiresome. It's a relief then to deal with a man who isn't quite so delightful but a little more sincere.
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All the words I use in my stories can be found in the dictionary-it's just a matter of arranging them into the right sentences.
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As lovers, the difference between men and women is that women can love all day long, but men only at times.
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Most people are such fools that it is really no great compliment to say that someone is above the average.
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We can none of us step into the same river twice, but the river flows on and the other river we step into is cool and refreshing, too
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It needs a good deal of philosophy not to be mortified by the thought of persons who have voluntarily abandoned everything that for the most of us makes life worth living and are devoid of envy of what they have missed. I have never made up my mind whether they are fools or wise men.
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The prestige you acquire by being able to tell your friends that you know famous men proves only that you are yourself of small account.
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I never spend more than one hour in a gallery. That is as long as one's power of appreciation persists.
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Of all the hokum with which this country [America] is riddled, the most odd is the common notion that it is free of class distinctions.
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People talk of beauty lightly, and having no feeling for words, they use that one carelessly, so that it loses its force; and the thing it stands for, sharing its name with a hundred trivial objects, is deprived of dignity. They call beautiful a dress, a dog, a sermon; and when they are face to face with Beauty cannot recognise it.
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The Riviera isn't only a sunny place for shady people.