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W. Somerset Maugham Quotes - Page 18

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Sometimes the road was only a lane, with thick hawthorne hedges, and the green elms overhung it on either side so that when you looked up there was only a strip of blue sky between. And as you rode along in the warm,

Sometimes the road was only a lane, with thick hawthorne hedges, and the green elms overhung it on either side so that when you looked up there was only a strip of blue sky between. And as you rode along in the warm, keen air you had a sensation that the world was standing still and life would last forever. Although you were pedaling with such energy you had a delicious feeling of laziness.

W. Somerset Maugham
Air, Blue, Sky
W. Somerset Maugham (1930). “Cakes and Ale”

Never pause unless you have a reason for it, but when you pause, pause as long as you can.

W. Somerset Maugham
Long, Reason, Pauses
W. Somerset Maugham (1937). “Theatre”

The ideal has many names, and beauty is but one of them.

W. Somerset Maugham
Beauty, Names, Ideals
W. Somerset Maugham (1930). “Cakes and Ale”

You will have to learn many tedious things,...which you will forget the moment you have passed your final examination, but in anatomy it is better to have learned and lost than never to have learned at all.

W. Somerset Maugham
Learning, Finals, Examination
Of Human Bondage Ch. LIV

People are always a little disconcerted when you don't recognize them, they are so important to themselves, it is a shock to discover of what small importance they are to others. [The human element]

W. Somerset Maugham
People, Important, Elements

Genius is talent provided with ideals. Genius starves while talent wears purple and fine linen. The man of genius of today will infifty years' time be in most cases no more than a man of talent.

W. Somerset Maugham
Men, Years, Purple

Why did you look at the sunset?' Philip answered with his mouth full: Because I was happy.

W. Somerset Maugham
Sunset, Looks, Mouths
W. Somerset Maugham (2011). “Of Human Bondage (人性枷鎖)”, p.1885, Hyweb Technology Co. Ltd.

The worst of having so much tact was that you never quite knew whether other people were acting naturally or being tactful too. [The human element]

W. Somerset Maugham
People, Acting, Elements

Has it occurred to you that transmigration is at once an explanation and a justification of the evil of the world? If the evils we suffer are the result of sins committed in our past lives, we can bear them with resignation and hope that if in this one we strive toward virtue out future lives will be less afflicted.

W. Somerset Maugham
Past, Evil, Suffering

There is no need for the writer to eat a whole sheep to be able to tell you what mutton tastes like. It is enough if he eats a cutlet. But he should do that.

W. Somerset Maugham
Sheep, Needs, Able
W. Somerset Maugham (2011). “A Writer's Notebook”, p.230, Random House

It is an illusion that youth is happy, an illusion of those who have lost it.

W. Somerset Maugham
Time, Lost Youth, Age
W. Somerset Maugham (2016). “Of Human Bondage (Diversion Classics)”, p.164, Diversion Books

Evil can be condoned only if in the beyond it is compensated by good and god himself needs immortality to vindicate his ways to man.

W. Somerset Maugham
Men, Evil, Needs
W. Somerset Maugham (1954). “Mr. Maugham Himself”

When married people don't get on they can separate, but if they're not married it's impossible. It's a tie that only death can sever.

W. Somerset Maugham
Friendship, Ties, People

A woman will always sacrifice herself if you give her the opportunity. It is her favourite form of self indulgence.

W. Somerset Maugham
Love, Women, Sacrifice
Circle (1921) act 3

There is no explanation for evil. It must be looked upon as a necessary part of the order of the universe. To ignore it is childish, to bewail it senseless.

W. Somerset Maugham
Order, Evil, Atheism
W. Somerset Maugham (1954). “Mr. Maugham Himself”

Do you absolutely despise me, Walter?" "No." He hesitated and his voice was strange. "I despise myself.

W. Somerset Maugham
Voice, Strange, Despise
W. Somerset Maugham (2009). “The Painted Veil”, p.113, Random House

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.

W. Somerset Maugham
Funny, Humorous, Ambition

Music-hall songs provide the dull with wit, just as proverbs provide them with wisdom.

W. Somerset Maugham
Song, Dull, Wit
W. Somerset Maugham (2011). “A Writer's Notebook”, p.15, Random House

Freedom! That was the thought that sung in her heart so that even though the future was so dim, it was iridescent like the mist over the river where the morning sun fell upon it. Freedom! Not only freedom from a bond that irked, and a companionship which depressed her; freedom, not only from the death which had threatened, but freedom from the love that had degraded her; freedom from all spiritual ties, the freedom of a disembodied spirit, and with freedom, courage , and a valiant unconcern for whatever was to come.

W. Somerset Maugham
Spiritual, Morning, Heart

and he loved her suddenly because she loved him.

W. Somerset Maugham
W. Somerset Maugham (2013). “The Essential W. Somerset Maugham Collection”, p.1626, eBookIt.com

The author always loads his dice, but he must never let the reader see that he has done so.

W. Somerset Maugham
Done, Dice, Reader

It is well known that Beauty does not look with a good grace on the timid advances of Humour.

W. Somerset Maugham
Grace, Doe, Looks
W. Somerset Maugham (1930). “Cakes and Ale”

It seems that the creative faculty and the critical faculty cannot exist together in their highest perfection.

W. Somerset Maugham
Creativity, Perfection, Creative

We didn't think much in the air corps of a fellow who wangled a cushy job out of his C.O. by buttering him up. It was hard for me to believe that God thought much of a man who tried to wangle salvation by fulsome flattery. I should have thought the worship most pleasing to him was to do your best according to your lights.

W. Somerset Maugham
God, Jobs, Believe
W. Somerset Maugham (2008). “The Razor's Edge”, p.275, Random House

Sherry, the civilized drink.

W. Somerset Maugham
Wine, Drink, Sherry

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