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W. Somerset Maugham Quotes - Page 20

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I knew that suffering did not enoble; it degraded. It made men selfish, petty and suspicious. It absorbed them in small things...it made them less than men; and I wrote ferociously that we learn resignation not by our

I knew that suffering did not enoble; it degraded. It made men selfish, petty and suspicious. It absorbed them in small things...it made them less than men; and I wrote ferociously that we learn resignation not by our own suffering, but by the suffering of others.

W. Somerset Maugham
Selfish, Men, Suffering Of Others
W. Somerset Maugham (1954). “Mr. Maugham Himself”

Everyone had some defect, or body or of mind: he thought of all the people he had known (the whole world was like a sick house and there was no rhyme or reason in it), he saw a long procession, deformed in body, warped in mind, some with illness of the flesh, weak hearts or weak lungs, and some with illness of the spirit, languor of will, or craving for liquor. At that moment he felt a holy compassion for them all. …The words of the dying God crossed his memory: Forgive them, for they know not what they do.

W. Somerset Maugham
Memories, Heart, Compassion

The ideas for stories that thronged my brain would not let me rest till I had got rid of them by writing them.

W. Somerset Maugham
Writing, Ideas, Brain

Writing is a wholetime job: no professional writer can afford only to write when he feels like it.

W. Somerset Maugham
Jobs, Writing, Feels

D'you call life a bad job? Never! We've had our ups and downs, we've had our struggles, we've always been poor, but it's been worth it, ay, worth it a hundred times I say when I look round at my children.

W. Somerset Maugham
Jobs, Children, Struggle
W. Somerset Maugham (2013). “The Essential W. Somerset Maugham Collection”, p.2171, eBookIt.com

She was a fool and he knew it and because he loved her it had made no difference.

W. Somerset Maugham
Differences, Fool, Made

Art is triumphant when it can use convention as an instrument of its own purpose.

W. Somerset Maugham
Art, Purpose, Use
W. Somerset Maugham (2008). “The Razor's Edge”, p.264, Random House

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.

W. Somerset Maugham
Greatness, Men, Quality

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.

W. Somerset Maugham
Pain, Selfish, Women

Cronshaw stopped for a moment to drink. He had pondered for twenty years the problem whether he loved liquor because it made him talk or whether he loved conversation because it made him thirsty.

W. Somerset Maugham
Years, Twenties, Problem
W. Somerset Maugham (2016). “Of Human Bondage (Diversion Classics)”, p.264, Diversion Books

But Philip was impatient with himself; he called to mind his idea of the pattern of life: the unhappiness he had suffered was no more than part of a decoration which was elaborate and beautiful; he told himself strenuously that he must accept with gaiety everything, dreariness and excitement, pleasure and pain, because it added to the richness of the design.

W. Somerset Maugham
Beautiful, Pain, Ideas
W. Somerset Maugham (2009). “Of Human Bondage”, p.1260, The Floating Press

There was an immeasurable distance between the quick and the dead: they did not seem to belong to the same species; and it was strange to think that but a little while before they had spoken and moved and eaten and laughed.

W. Somerset Maugham
Distance, Thinking, Littles
W. Somerset Maugham (2016). “Of Human Bondage (Diversion Classics)”, p.363, Diversion Books

What has influenced my life more than any other single thing has been my stammer. Had I not stammered I would probably... have gone to Cambridge as my brothers did, perhaps have become a don and every now and then published a dreary book about French literature.

W. Somerset Maugham
Brother, Book, Single Life
"Newsweek" Magazine, May 23, 1960.

The great critic … must be a philosopher, for from philosophy he will learn serenity, impartiality, and the transitoriness of human things.

W. Somerset Maugham
Philosophy, Serenity, Philosopher
W. Somerset Maugham (1954). “Mr. Maugham Himself”

Art for art's sake makes no more sense than gin for gin's sake.

W. Somerset Maugham
Art, Sake, Advertising

The Riviera isn't only a sunny place for shady people.

W. Somerset Maugham
People, Shady, Sunny
"Strictly Personal". Book by W. Somerset Maugham, Doubleday, Doran and co., inc., p. 156, 1941.

Kant thought things, not because they were true, but because he was Kant.

W. Somerset Maugham
W. Somerset Maugham (1954). “Mr. Maugham Himself”

But there are people who take salt with their coffee. They say it gives a tang, a savour, which is peculiar and fascinating. In the same way there are certain places, surrounded by a halo of romance, to which the inevitable disillusionment you experience on seeing them gives a singular spice. You had expected something wholly beautiful and you get an impression which is infinitely more complicated than any that beauty can give you. It is the weakness in the character of a great man which may make him less admirable but certainly more interesting. Nothing had prepared me for Honolulu.

W. Somerset Maugham
Beautiful, Coffee, Character

The arguments for immortality, weak when you take them one by one, are no more cogent when you take them together... For my part, I cannot see how consciousness can persist when its physical basis has been destroyed, and I am too sure of the interconnection of my body and my mind to think that any survival of my my consciousness apart from my body would be in any sense a survival of myself.

W. Somerset Maugham
Thinking, Survival, Mind

The artist can within limits make what he likes of his life... It is only the artist, and maybe the criminal, who can make his own.

W. Somerset Maugham
Artist, Atheism, Criminals

Through the history of the world there have always been exploiters and exploited. There always will be ... because the great mass of men are made by nature to be slaves, they are unfit to control themselves, and for their own good need masters.

W. Somerset Maugham
Men, Atheism, Needs
W. Somerset Maugham (2009). “Christmas Holiday”, p.228, Random House

It was like making a blunder at a party; there was nothing to do about it, it was dreadfully mortifying, but it showed a lack of sense to ascribe too much importance to it.

W. Somerset Maugham
Party, Too Much, Blunders
W. Somerset Maugham (2009). “The Painted Veil”, p.151, Random House

Usage is the only test. I prefer a phrase that is easy and unaffected to a phrase that is grammatical.

W. Somerset Maugham
Phrases, Tests, Easy

I thought it was only in revealed religion that a mistranslation improved the sense.

W. Somerset Maugham
Atheism
W. Somerset Maugham (2016). “Of Human Bondage (Diversion Classics)”, p.149, Diversion Books

Was it necessary to tell me that you wanted nothing in the world but me?' The corners of his mouth drooped peevishly. Oh, my dear, it's rather hard to take quite literally the things a man says when he's in love with you.' Didn't you mean them?' At the moment.

W. Somerset Maugham
Love You, Mean, Men
W. Somerset Maugham (2009). “The Painted Veil”, p.69, Random House

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