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W. Somerset Maugham Quotes - Page 9

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Do you know that conversation is one of the greatest pleasures in life? But it wants leisure.

Do you know that conversation is one of the greatest pleasures in life? But it wants leisure.

W. Somerset Maugham
Life, Want, Leisure
W. Somerset Maugham (2015). “The Trembling of a Leaf: Stories of the South Sea Islands”, p.61, Xist Publishing

"Do you like card tricks?" "No, I hate card tricks," I answered. "Well, I`ll just show you this one." He showed me three.

W. Somerset Maugham
Hate, Magic, Three
W. Somerset Maugham (2010). “Collected Short Stories”, p.329, Random House

Death is a very dull, dreary affair, and my advice to you is to have nothing whatsoever to do with it.

W. Somerset Maugham
Inspirational, Funny, Death
"What Happens When the Average Lifespan Hits 100?" by Megan Erickson, bigthink.com.

Some of us look for the Way in opium and some in God, some of us in whiskey and some in love. It is all the same Way and it leads nowhither.

W. Somerset Maugham
Way, Looks, Whiskey
W. Somerset Maugham (2009). “The Painted Veil”, p.145, Random House

The writer of prose can only step aside when the poet passes...

W. Somerset Maugham
Steps, Poet, Prose
"Cakes and Ale: Or, The Skeleton in the Cupboard" by W. Somerset Maugham, (p. 184), 1930.

I've always been interested in people, but I've never liked them.

W. Somerset Maugham
Funny, People, Literature

She plunged into a sea of platitudes, and with the powerful breast stroke of a channel swimmer made her confident way towards the white cliffs of the obvious.

W. Somerset Maugham
Sarcastic, Powerful, Sea
"A Writer's Notebook". Book by W. Somerset Maugham, 1946.

What was it in the human heart that made you despise a man because he loved you?

W. Somerset Maugham
Heart, Men, Made

We who are of mature age seldom suspect how unmercifully and yet with what insight the very young judge us.

W. Somerset Maugham
Judging, Age, Mature
W. Somerset Maugham (2008). “The Razor's Edge”, p.26, Random House

It is not difficult to be unconventional in the eyes of the world when your unconventionality is but the convention of your set.

W. Somerset Maugham
Eye, Deception, Independence
The Moon and Sixpence ch. 14 (1919)

You can never know enough about your characters

W. Somerset Maugham
Character, Enough, Knows
W. Somerset Maugham (2010). “The Summing Up”, p.91, Random House

When a man's in love, he at once makes a pedestal of the Ten Commandments and stands on the top of them with his arms akimbo. When a woman's in love she doesn't care two straws for Thou Shalt and Thou Shalt Not.

W. Somerset Maugham
Men, Two, Pedestal

Evil is a necessary part of the order of the universe.

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

The best style is the style you don't notice.

W. Somerset Maugham
Writing, Style, Creative Writing

I am sick of this way of life. The weariness and sadness of old age make it intolerable. I have walked with death in hand, and death's own hand is warmer than my own. I don't wish to live any longer.

W. Somerset Maugham
Sadness, Hands, Sick

It might be that to surrender to happiness was to accept defeat, but it was a defeat better than many victories.

W. Somerset Maugham
Victory, Might, Defeat
W. Somerset Maugham (2016). “Of Human Bondage (Diversion Classics)”, p.848, Diversion Books

I was a stray acquaintance whom he had never seem before and would never see again, a wandered for a moment through his monotonous life, and some starved impulse left him to lay bare his soul. I have in this way learned more about men in a night than I could if I had known them for 10 years. If you are interested in human nature, it is one of the greatest pleasures of travel.

W. Somerset Maugham
Life, Night, Men

No one can write a best seller by trying to. He must write with complete sincerity; the clichés that make you laugh, the hackneyed characters, the well-worn situations, the commonplace story that excites your derision, seem neither hackneyed, well worn nor commonplace to him. ... The conclusion is obvious: you cannot write anything that will convince unless you are yourself convinced. The best seller sells because he writes with his heart's blood.

W. Somerset Maugham
Writing, Heart, Character

There is no cruelty greater than a woman's to a man who loves her and whom she does not love; she has no kindness then, no tolerance even, she has only an insane irritation.

W. Somerset Maugham
Kindness, Men, Irritation
W. Somerset Maugham (2012). “The Moon and Sixpence”, p.85, Courier Corporation

From old habit, unconsciously he thanked God that he no longer believed in Him.

W. Somerset Maugham
Old Habits, Habit, Human Bondage
W. Somerset Maugham (2016). “Of Human Bondage (Diversion Classics)”, p.160, Diversion Books

When people say they do not care what others think of them, for the most part they deceive themselves. Generally they mean only that they will do as they choose, in the confidence that no one will know their vagaries; and at the utmost only that they are willing to act contrary to the opinion of the majority because they are supported by the approval of their neighbours. It is not difficult to be unconventional in the eyes of the world when your unconventionality is but the convention of your set.

W. Somerset Maugham
Mean, Eye, Thinking
The Moon and Sixpence ch. 14 (1919)

If only the good were a little less heavy-footed

W. Somerset Maugham
Littles, Heavy, Ifs

I write only when inspiration strikes. Fortunately it strikes every morning at nine o'clock sharp.

W. Somerset Maugham
Morning, Inspiration, Writing

The moral I draw is that the writer should seek his reward in the pleasure of his work and in release from the burden of thought; and, indifferent to aught else, care nothing for praise or censure, failure or success.

W. Somerset Maugham
Care, Rewards, Moral
W. Somerset Maugham (2012). “The Moon and Sixpence”, p.6, Courier Corporation

A Unitarian very earnestly disbelieves what everyone else believes.

W. Somerset Maugham
Believe, Religion, Unitarian

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