Authors:

W. Somerset Maugham Quotes - Page 2

All Quotes Age Aging Art Atheism Beauty Belief Change Character Children Common Sense Community Consciousness Country Criticism Culture Death Desire Dignity Diversity Doubt Duty Dying Education Effort Ethics Evil Exercise Failure Falling In Love Fashion Friendship Funny Giving God Goodness Grace Greatness Happiness Hate Heart Heaven Home Humility Husband Imagination Inspirational Intelligence Judging Kindness Learning Life Literature Love Lying Maturity Memories Money Morality Morning Motivational Pain Passion Past Perfection Personality Philosophy Pleasure Politics Praise Quality Reading Regret Religion Reputation Romance Sacrifice Sin Social Justice Soul Study Success Suffering Talent Teaching Time Tolerance Tragedy Truth Virtue Weakness Wealth Wine Wisdom Wit Work Writing Youth
Love is what happens to men and women who don't know each other.

Love is what happens to men and women who don't know each other.

W. Somerset Maugham
Love, Men, Happens

You can do anything in this world if you are prepared to take the consequences.

W. Somerset Maugham
Inspirational, Positive Thinking, World
"The Circle: A Comedy in Three Acts". Play by W. Somerset Maugham, 1921.

The important thing was to love rather than to be loved.

W. Somerset Maugham
Love, Life, Important
W. Somerset Maugham (2009). “Of Human Bondage”, p.760, The Floating Press

It is a nuisance that knowledge can only be acquired by hard work.

W. Somerset Maugham
Education, Hard Work, Knowledge

It wasn't until late in life that I discovered how easy it is to say, 'I don't know.'

W. Somerset Maugham
Children, Humble, Humility

One cannot find peace in work or in pleasure, in the world or in a convent, but only in one's soul.

W. Somerset Maugham
Soul, World, Finding Peace
W. Somerset Maugham (2009). “The Painted Veil”, p.119, Random House

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.

W. Somerset Maugham
Mistake, Waiting, Matter

Why should you think that beauty, which is the most precious thing in the world, lies like a stone on the beach for the careless passer-by to pick up idly? Beauty is something wonderful and strange that the artist fashions out of the chaos of the world in the torment of his soul. And when he has made it, it is not given to all to know it. To recognize it you must repeat the adventure of the artist. It is a melody that he sings to you, and to hear it again in your own heart you want knowledge and sensitiveness and imagination.

W. Somerset Maugham
Fashion, Beach, Lying
W. Somerset Maugham (2013). “The Essential W. Somerset Maugham Collection”, p.1312, eBookIt.com

An unfortunate thing about this world is that the good habits are much easier to give up than the bad ones.

W. Somerset Maugham
Giving Up, Unfortunate Things, World

Life is so largely controlled by chance that its conduct can be but a perpetual improvisation.

W. Somerset Maugham
Life, Cute, Chance

What makes old age hard to bear is not the failing of one's faculties, mental and physical, but the burden of one's memories.

W. Somerset Maugham
Time, Memories, Age
Points of View Ch. 1

Imagination grows by exercise, and contrary to common belief, is more powerful in the mature than in the young.

W. Somerset Maugham
Powerful, Writing, Creativity
"The Summing Up" by W. Somerset Maugham, Doubleday, Doran & Co., (p. 164), 1938.

From the earliest time the old have rubbed it into the young that they are wiser, and before the young had discovered what nonsense this was they were old too, and it profited them to carry on the imposture.

W. Somerset Maugham
Generations, Aging, Nonsense
Cakes and Ale ch. 11 (1930)

There are two good things in life - freedom of thought and freedom of action.

W. Somerset Maugham
Freedom, Things In Life, Two
W. Somerset Maugham (2016). “Of Human Bondage (Diversion Classics)”, p.130, Diversion Books

The essence of the beautiful is unity in variety.

W. Somerset Maugham
Beautiful, Wise, Wisdom

Sometimes a man hits upon a place to which he mysteriously feels that he belongs.

W. Somerset Maugham
Men, Association, Sometimes
W. Somerset Maugham (2013). “The Essential W. Somerset Maugham Collection”, p.1429, eBookIt.com

If you don't change your beliefs, your life will be like this forever. Is that good news?

W. Somerset Maugham
Motivational, Change, Believe

I always find it more difficult to say the things I mean than the things I don't.

W. Somerset Maugham
Mean, Difficult
W. Somerset Maugham (2009). “The Painted Veil”, p.32, Random House

If a man hasn't what's necessary to make a woman love him, it's his fault, not hers.

W. Somerset Maugham
Women, Men, Faults

Art is a manifestation of emotion, and emotion speaks a language that all may understand.

W. Somerset Maugham
Art, May, Emotion
W. Somerset Maugham (2012). “The Moon and Sixpence”, p.2, Courier Corporation

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.

W. Somerset Maugham
Worried, Human Bondage, Worst
W. Somerset Maugham (2013). “The Essential W. Somerset Maugham Collection”, p.1876, eBookIt.com

It is not wealth one asks for, but just enough to preserve one's dignity, to work unhampered, to be generous, frank and independent.

W. Somerset Maugham
Independent, Dignity Of Work, Wealth
W. Somerset Maugham (2016). “Of Human Bondage (Diversion Classics)”, p.343, Diversion Books

Money is like a sixth sense without which you cannot make a complete use of the other five.

W. Somerset Maugham
Inspirational, Life, Happiness
Of Human Bondage (1915) ch. 51

There is nothing so degrading as the constant anxiety about one's means of livelihood.

W. Somerset Maugham
Mean, Anxiety, Human Bondage
W. Somerset Maugham (2016). “Of Human Bondage (Diversion Classics)”, p.342, Diversion Books

The crown of literature is poetry. It is its end and aim. It is the sublimest activity of the human mind. It is the achievement of beauty and delicacy. The writer of prose can only step aside when the poet passes.

W. Somerset Maugham
Poetry, Achievement, Mind

You May Also Like: