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W. Somerset Maugham Quotes about Inspirational

All W. Somerset Maugham 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 quotes 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
It's a funny thing about life; if you refuse to accept anything but the best, you very often get it.

It's a funny thing about life; if you refuse to accept anything but the best, you very often get it.

W. Somerset Maugham
Inspirational, Funny, Life
The Mixture as Before "The Treasure" (1940)

The secret to life is meaningless unless you discover it yourself.

W. Somerset Maugham
Inspirational, Secret, Life Is

Only a mediocre person is always at his best.

W. Somerset Maugham
Inspirational, Life, Failure

The ability to quote is a serviceable substitute for wit.

W. Somerset Maugham
Inspirational, Funny, Science

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.

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

When you choose your friends, don't be short-changed by choosing personality over character.

W. Somerset Maugham
Inspirational, Friendship, Children

We know our friends by their defects rather than by their merits.

W. Somerset Maugham
Inspirational, Life, Friendship
W. Somerset Maugham (1954). “Mr. Maugham Himself”

You learn more quickly under the guidance of experienced teachers. You waste a lot of time going down blind alleys if you have no one to lead you.

W. Somerset Maugham
Inspirational, Education, Teacher
W. Somerset Maugham (2008). “The Razor's Edge”, p.34, Random House

At a dinner party one should eat wisely but not too well, and talk well but not too wisely.

W. Somerset Maugham
Inspirational, Clever, Happy New Year
Writer's Notebook (1949) p. 17 (written in 1896)

The common idea that success spoils people by making them vain, egotistic and self-complacent is erroneous; on the contrary it makes them, for the most part, humble, tolerant and kind.

W. Somerset Maugham
Inspirational, Success, Congratulations
Summing Up (1938) p. 187

The trouble is that thinking looks like loafing. Who wants to pay people for daydreaming?

W. Somerset Maugham
Inspirational, Teaching, Learning

Impropriety is the soul of wit.

W. Somerset Maugham
Inspirational, Life, Advice
Moon and Sixpence (1919) ch. 4

It is not true that suffering ennobles the character; happiness does that sometimes, but suffering for the most part, makes men petty and vindictive.

W. Somerset Maugham
Inspirational, Life, Character
Moon and Sixpence (1919) ch. 17

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

Death doesn't affect the living because it has not happened yet. Death doesn't concern the dead because they have ceased to exist.

W. Somerset Maugham
Inspirational, Life, Death

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.

I do not believe they are right who say that the defects of famous men should be ignored. I think it is better that we should know them. Then, though we are conscious of having faults as glaring as theirs, we can believe that that is no hindrance to our achieving also something of their virtues.

W. Somerset Maugham
Inspirational, Life, Believe
W. Somerset Maugham (2010). “The Summing Up”, p.70, Random House

We do not write as we want, but as we can.

W. Somerset Maugham
Inspirational, Life, Beautiful
W. Somerset Maugham (1941). “the Gentleman in the Parlour”

Excess on occasion is exhilarating. It prevents moderation from acquiring the deadening effect of a habit. It's a funny thing about life; if you refuse to accept anything but the best, you very often get it. Like all weak men he laid an exaggerated stress on not changing one's mind.

W. Somerset Maugham
Inspirational, Stress, Men
Of Human Bondage ch. 39 (1915)

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