Authors:

W. Somerset Maugham Quotes - Page 7

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
You know, of course, that the Tasmanians, who never committed adultery, are now extinct.

You know, of course, that the Tasmanians, who never committed adultery, are now extinct.

W. Somerset Maugham
Sex, Adultery, Committed

No married man's ever made up his mind until he's heard what his wife has got to say about it.

W. Somerset Maugham
Men, Wife, Mind

Beauty is an ecstasy; it is as simple as hunger. There is really nothing to be said about it. It is like the perfume of a rose: you can smell it and that is all.

W. Somerset Maugham
Beauty, Simple, Smell
W. Somerset Maugham (1930). “Cakes and Ale”

A little smoke lost in the air, that was the life of a man.

W. Somerset Maugham
Men, Air, Littles
W. Somerset Maugham (2009). “The Painted Veil”, p.160, Random House

Women's hearts are like old china, none the worse for a break or two.

W. Somerset Maugham
Women, Heart, Two

Life is really very fantastic, and one has to have a peculiar sense of humour to see the fun of it. [Virtue]

W. Somerset Maugham
Fun, Peculiar, Life Is

We do not write because we want to; we write because we have to.

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

A writer need not devour a whole sheep in order to know what mutton tastes like, but he must at least eat a chop. Unless he gets his facts right, his imagination will lead him into all kinds of nonsense, and the facts he is most likely to get right are the facts of his own experience.

W. Somerset Maugham
Sheep, Order, Imagination

Men have ascribed to God imperfections that they would deplore in themselves.

W. Somerset Maugham
Men, Imperfection, Religion
W. Somerset Maugham (1954). “Mr. Maugham Himself”

Affection is created by habit, community of interests, convenience and the desire of companionship. It is a comfort rather than an exhilaration.

W. Somerset Maugham
Community, Desire, Comfort
W. Somerset Maugham (1954). “Mr. Maugham Himself”

Charm and nothing but charm at last grows a little tiresome. It's a relief then to deal with a man who isn't quite so delightful but a little more sincere.

W. Somerset Maugham
Men, Relief, Littles

It requires the feminine temperament to repeat the same thing three times with unabated zest.

W. Somerset Maugham
Zest, Three, Feminine
W. Somerset Maugham (2012). “The Moon and Sixpence”, p.36, Courier Corporation

When I was young I had an elderly friend who used often to ask me to stay with him in the country. He was a religious man and he read prayers to the assembled household every morning. But he had crossed out in pencil all the passages that praised God. He said that there was nothing so vulgar as to praise people to their faces and, himself a gentleman, he could not believe that God was so ungentlemanly as to like it.

W. Somerset Maugham
Country, Religious, Morning
W. Somerset Maugham (1954). “Mr. Maugham Himself”

You tend to close your eyes to truth, beauty and goodness because they give no scope to your sense of the ridiculous.

W. Somerset Maugham
Happiness, Eye, Giving
W. Somerset Maugham (2010). “The Summing Up”, p.65, Random House

He is not famous. It may be that he never will be. It may be that when his life at last comes to an end he will leave no more trace of his sojourn on earth than a stone thrown into a river leaves on the surface of the water. But it may be that the way of life that he has chosen for himself and the peculiar strength and sweetness of his character may have an ever-growing influence over his fellow men so that, long after his death perhaps, it may be realized that there lived in this age a very remarkable creature.

W. Somerset Maugham
Character, Men, Rivers

It is well to remember that grammar is common speech formulated.

W. Somerset Maugham
Writing, Speech, Common
W. Somerset Maugham (1954). “Mr. Maugham Himself”

I am afraid of people with too much charm. They devour you. In the end you are made a sacrifice to the exercise of their fascinating gift and their insincerity.

W. Somerset Maugham
Exercise, Sacrifice, People
W. Somerset Maugham (1941). “the Gentleman in the Parlour”

Refecting on the high divorce rate in America as contrasted with England "American women expect to find in their husbands a perfection that English women only hope to find in their butlers

W. Somerset Maugham
Husband, Divorce, America

The world in general doesn't know what to make of originality; it is startled out of its comfortable habits of thought, and its first reaction is one of anger.

W. Somerset Maugham
Anger, Political, World
"Ten Novels and Their Authors". Book by W. Somerset Maugham, 1948.

Excess on occasion is exhilarating. It prevents moderation from acquiring the deadening effect of a habit.

W. Somerset Maugham
Inspirational, Life, Excess
W. Somerset Maugham (2010). “The Summing Up”, p.47, Random House

It must be that there is something naturally absurd in a sincere emotion, though why there should be I cannot imagine, unless it is that man, the ephemeral inhabitant of an insignificant planet, with all his pain and all his striving is but a jest in an eternal mind.

W. Somerset Maugham
Pain, Men, Mind
W. Somerset Maugham (2010). “Cakes And Ale”, p.131, Random House

The great man is too often all of a piece; it is the little man that is a bundle of contradictory elements. He is inexhaustible. You never come to the end of the surprises he has in store for you.

W. Somerset Maugham
Greatness, Men, Pieces

The prestige you acquire by being able to tell your friends that you know famous men proves only that you are yourself of small account.

W. Somerset Maugham
Men, Able, Reputation
W. Somerset Maugham (1954). “Mr. Maugham Himself”

Anyone can tell the truth, but only very few of us can make epigrams.

W. Somerset Maugham
Truth, Lying, Telling The Truth
W. Somerset Maugham (2011). “A Writer's Notebook”, p.26, Random House

I wish I could make you see how much fuller the life I offer you is than anything you have a conception of. I wish I could make you see how exciting the life of the spirit is and how rich in experience. It's illimitable. It's such a happy life. There's only one thing like it, when you're up in a plane by yourself, high, high, and only infinity surrounds you. You're intoxicated by the boundless space.

W. Somerset Maugham
Happy Life, Space, Wish

You May Also Like: