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W. Somerset Maugham Quotes - Page 14

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Follow your inclinations with due regard to the policeman round the corner.

Follow your inclinations with due regard to the policeman round the corner.

W. Somerset Maugham
Dignity, Human Bondage, Policemen
W. Somerset Maugham (2016). “Of Human Bondage (Diversion Classics)”, p.356, Diversion Books

There is no object to life. To nature nothing matters but the continuation of the species.

W. Somerset Maugham
Matter, Continuation, Species
W. Somerset Maugham (2011). “A Writer's Notebook”, p.36, Random House

There is only one thing about which I am certain, and this is that there is very little about which one can be certain

W. Somerset Maugham
Decision, Littles, Certain
W. Somerset Maugham (1954). “Mr. Maugham Himself”

Thank God, I can look at a sunset now without having to think how to describe it

W. Somerset Maugham
Sunset, Thinking, Thank God
W. Somerset Maugham (1954). “Mr. Maugham Himself”

Have common sense and stick to the point.

W. Somerset Maugham
Common Sense, Sticks, Common

Tolerance is another word for indifference.

W. Somerset Maugham
Diversity, Tolerance, Social Justice

You are not angry with people when you laugh at them. Humour teaches tolerance, and the humorist, with a smile and perhaps a sigh, is more likely to shrug his shoulders than to condemn.

W. Somerset Maugham
People, Laughing, Tolerance
"The Summing Up". Book by W. Somerset Maugham, 1938.

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.

W. Somerset Maugham
Clever, Men, Thinking

Love is not always blind and there are few things that cause greater wretchedness than to love with all your heart someone who you know is unworthy of love.

W. Somerset Maugham
Love, Heart, Who You Know
W. Somerset Maugham (1954). “Mr. Maugham Himself”

Excess on occasion is exhilarating. It prevents moderation from acquiring the deadening effect of a habit. It's a funny thing about life; if you refuse to accept anything but the best, you very often get it. Like all weak men he laid an exaggerated stress on not changing one's mind.

W. Somerset Maugham
Inspirational, Stress, Men
Of Human Bondage ch. 39 (1915)

It has been said that good prose should resemble the conversation of a well-bred man.

W. Somerset Maugham
Writing, Men, Should
W. Somerset Maugham (1954). “Mr. Maugham Himself”

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.

W. Somerset Maugham
Money, Men, Devil

The artist produces for the liberation of his soul.

W. Somerset Maugham
Artist, Soul, Produce
W. Somerset Maugham (1954). “Mr. Maugham Himself”

Perhaps the most important use of money - It saves time. Life is so short, and there's so much to do, one can't afford to waste a minute; and just think how much you waste, for instance, in walking from place to place instead of going by bus and in going by bus instead of by taxi.

W. Somerset Maugham
Money, Thinking, Important

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.

W. Somerset Maugham
Mean, Long, Razors
W. Somerset Maugham (2008). “The Razor's Edge”, p.305, Random House

The drama is make-believe. It does not deal with truth but with effect.

W. Somerset Maugham
Drama, Believe, Doe

Dying is the most hellishly boresome experience in the world! Particularly when it entails dying of 'natural causes'.

W. Somerset Maugham
Death, Dying, World

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.

W. Somerset Maugham
Stars, Shining, Gutters

Art should be appreciated with passion and violence, not with a tepid, depreciating elegance that fears the censoriousness of a common room.

W. Somerset Maugham
Art, Passion, Rooms

She had no mercy. He looked at her neck and thought how he would like to jab it with the knife he had for his muffin. He knew enough anatomy to make pretty certain of getting the carotid artery. And at the same time he wanted to cover her pale, thin face with kisses.

W. Somerset Maugham
Kissing, Knives, Muffins
W. Somerset Maugham (2016). “Of Human Bondage (Diversion Classics)”, p.403, Diversion Books

Our natural egoism leads us to judge people by their relations to ourselves. We want them to be certain things to us, and for us that is what they are; because the rest of them is no good to us, we ignore it.

W. Somerset Maugham
People, Judging, Want
W. Somerset Maugham (2010). “The Summing Up”, p.69, Random House

When we come to judge others it is not by ourselves as we really are that we judge them, but by an image that we have formed of ourselves from which we have left out everything that offends our vanity or would discredit us in the eyes of the world.

W. Somerset Maugham
Eye, Vanity, Judging
W. Somerset Maugham (1954). “Mr. Maugham Himself”

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.

W. Somerset Maugham
Life, Pain, Men

The normal is what you find but rarely. The normal is an ideal. It is a picture that one fabricates of the average characteristics of men, and to find them all in a single man is hardly to be expected.

W. Somerset Maugham
Character, Men, Average
W. Somerset Maugham (1954). “Mr. Maugham Himself”

One does not really feel much grief at other people's sorrows; one tries, and puts on a melancholy face, thinking oneself brutal for not caring more; but one cannot and it is better, for if one grieved too deeply at other people's tears, life would be unendurable; and every man has sufficient sorrows of his own without taking to heart his neighbour's.

W. Somerset Maugham
Grief, Heart, Caring

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