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W. Somerset Maugham Quotes - Page 19

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Nothing more predisposes someone in our favour than to let him rob you a little.

Nothing more predisposes someone in our favour than to let him rob you a little.

W. Somerset Maugham
Littles, Favour

Conscience is the guardian in the individual of the rules which the community has evolved for its own preservation.

W. Somerset Maugham
Community, Individuality, Ethics
W. Somerset Maugham (2013). “The Essential W. Somerset Maugham Collection”, p.1292, eBookIt.com

It's always difficult to make conversation with a drunk, and there's no denying it, the sober are at a disadvantage with him.

W. Somerset Maugham
Drinking, Drunk, Sober

It is clear that men accept an immediate pain rather than an immediate pleasure, but only because they expect a greater pleasure in the future. Often the pleasure is illusory, but their error in calculation is no refutation of the rule.

W. Somerset Maugham
Country, Children, Pain
"The Essential W. Somerset Maugham Collection".

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.

W. Somerset Maugham
Wise, Philosophy, Men
W. Somerset Maugham (1941). “the Gentleman in the Parlour”

I am told that today rather more than 60 per cent of the men who go to the universities go on a Government grant. This is a new class that has entered upon the scene ... They are scum.

W. Somerset Maugham
Men, Class, Goes On

There are men who are possessed by an urge so strong to do some particular thing that they can't help themselves, they've got to do it. They're prepared to sacrifice everything to satisfy their yearning.

W. Somerset Maugham
Strong, Writing, Sacrifice
"The Razor's Edge". Book by W. Somerset Maugham, 1944.

Women are strange little beasts,' he said to Dr. Coutras. 'You can treat them like dogs, you can beat them till your arm aches, and still they love you.' He shrugged his shoulders. 'Of course, it is one of the most absurd illusions of Christianity that they have souls.

W. Somerset Maugham
Dog, Love You, Soul
W. Somerset Maugham (2012). “The Moon and Sixpence”, p.153, Courier Corporation

I don't know why it is that the religious never ascribe common sense to God.

W. Somerset Maugham
Religious, Common Sense, Common

Art is merely the refuge which the ingenious have invented, when they were supplied with food and women, to escape the tediousness of life.

W. Somerset Maugham
Art, Human Bondage, Refuge
W. Somerset Maugham (2016). “Of Human Bondage (Diversion Classics)”, p.265, Diversion Books

It's asking a great deal that things should appeal to your reason as well as your sense of the aesthetic. - Of Human Bondage

W. Somerset Maugham
Asking, Reason, Human Bondage
W. Somerset Maugham (2017). “Of Human Bondage”, p.470, Open Road Media

Our wise old church...has discovered that if you will act as if you believed belief will be given to you; if you pray with doubt, but pray with sincerity, your doubt will be dispelled; if you will surrender yourself to the beauty of that liturgy the power of which over the human spirit has been proved by the experience of the ages, peace will descend upon you.

W. Somerset Maugham
Wise, Doubt, Age

Her tears were partly tears of happiness, for she felt that the strangeness between them was gone. She loved him now with a new love because he had made her suffer.

W. Somerset Maugham
Suffering, Tears, Gone
W. Somerset Maugham (2009). “Of Human Bondage”, p.64, The Floating Press

It has amazed me that the most incongruous traits should exist in the same person and, for all that, yield a plausible harmony.

W. Somerset Maugham
Character, Yield, Harmony
W. Somerset Maugham (1954). “Mr. Maugham Himself”

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.

W. Somerset Maugham
Funny, Sex, Humorous
W. Somerset Maugham (1930). “Cakes and Ale”

Truth is not only stranger than fiction, it is more telling. To know that a thing actually happened gives it a poignancy, touches a chord, which a piece of acknowledged fiction misses. It is to touch this chord that some authors have done everything they could to give you the impression that they are telling the plain truth.

W. Somerset Maugham
Giving, Missing, Fiction

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.

W. Somerset Maugham
Stupid, Romance, Heartless
W. Somerset Maugham (2016). “Of Human Bondage (Diversion Classics)”, p.471, Diversion Books

Just as the painter thinks with his brush and paints the novelist thinks with his story.

W. Somerset Maugham
Thinking, Novelists, Fiction

Are you sure you can prevent yourself from falling in love one of these days? Such things do happen, you know, even to the most prudent men.' Simon gave him a strange, one might even have thought a hostile, look. I should tear it out of my heart as I'd wrench out of my mouth a rotten tooth.

W. Somerset Maugham
Falling In Love, Heart, Men
W. Somerset Maugham (1939). “Christmas Holiday”

I do not think you want too much sincerity in society. It would be like an iron girder in a house of cards.

W. Somerset Maugham
Thinking, House Of Cards, Iron
W. Somerset Maugham (2017). “Plays Volume One”, p.171, Random House

The last words he said to me when I bade him good-night were: Tell Amy it's no good coming after me. Anyhow, I shall change my hotel, so she wouldn't be able to find me.' My own impression is that she's well rid of you,' I said. My dear fellow, I only hope you'll be able to make her see it. But women are very unintelligent.

W. Somerset Maugham
Good Night, Amy, Able

Marco Polo tells the tale of The Old Man in the Mountains and how he recruits new members to his Band of Assassins by means of drugs, beautiful women, lush gardens, and religious promises. The unfortunate thing about this world is that the good habits are much easier to give up than the bad ones.

W. Somerset Maugham
Beautiful, Religious, Giving Up

I did not believe him capable of love. That is an emotion in which tenderness is an essential part, but Strickland had no tenderness either for himself or for others; there is in love a sense of weakness, a desire to protect, an eagerness to do good and to give pleasure--if not unselfishness, at all events a selfishness which marvellously conceals itself; it has in it a certain diffidence.

W. Somerset Maugham
Believe, Giving, Desire
W. Somerset Maugham (2006). “The Moon and Sixpence”, p.84, Courier Corporation

A good Havana is one of the best pleasures that I know.

W. Somerset Maugham
Luxury, Pleasure, Havana

The mathematician who after seeing Phedre asked: 'Qu'est que ca prouve?' was not such a fool as he has been generally made out. No one has ever been able to explain why the Doric temple of Paestum is more beautiful than a glass of cold beer except by bringing in considerations that have nothing to do with beauty.

W. Somerset Maugham
Funny, Beauty, Beautiful

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