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W. Somerset Maugham Quotes about Life

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 Intelligence Judging Kindness Learning Life quotes 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
We are not the same persons this year as last; nor are those we love. It is a happy chance if we, changing, continue to love a changed person.

We are not the same persons this year as last; nor are those we love. It is a happy chance if we, changing, continue to love a changed person.

W. Somerset Maugham
Love, Life, Change
W. Somerset Maugham (1954). “Mr. Maugham Himself”

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)

To acquire the habit of reading is to construct for yourself a refuge from almost all the miseries of life.

W. Somerset Maugham
Life, Book, Reading

Only a mediocre person is always at his best.

W. Somerset Maugham
Inspirational, Life, Failure

The love that lasts longest is the love that is never returned.

W. Somerset Maugham
Love, Life, Heartbreak
"A Writer's Notebook" by W. Somerset Maugham, Country Life Press, (p. 13), 1949.

The great tragedy of life is not that men perish, but that they cease to love.

W. Somerset Maugham
Love, Life, Change
W. Somerset Maugham (1954). “Mr. Maugham Himself”

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

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

W. Somerset Maugham
Life, Cute, Chance

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

It's no good trying to keep up old friendships. It's painful for both sides. The fact is, one grows out of people, and the only thing is to face it.

W. Somerset Maugham
Life, Friendship, Time
W. Somerset Maugham (1930). “Cakes and Ale”

Life isn't long enough for love and art.

W. Somerset Maugham
Life, Famous Love, Art
W. Somerset Maugham (2011). “The Moon and Sixpence (月亮與六便士)”, p.336, Hyweb Technology Co. Ltd.

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”

There's always one who loves and one who lets himself be loved.

W. Somerset Maugham
Love, Life, Human Bondage
Of Human Bondage ch. 71 (1915)

I can imagine no more comfortable frame of mind for the conduct of life than a humorous resignation.

W. Somerset Maugham
Funny, Life, Happiness

My own belief is that there is hardly anyone whose sexual life, if it were broadcast, would not fill the world at large with surprise and horror.

W. Somerset Maugham
Life, Sex, Gay
"Somerset Maugham". Book by Ted Morgan, 1980.

The passing moment is all we can be sure of; it is only common sense to extract its utmost value from it.

W. Somerset Maugham
Life, Passing Moments, Common Sense
W. Somerset Maugham (2010). “The Summing Up”, p.50, Random House

The tragedy of love is indifference.

W. Somerset Maugham
Love, Life, Tragedy
The Trembling of a Leaf ch. 4 (1921)

As the cosmos are in place, so be it with your life.

W. Somerset Maugham
Life, Cosmos

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

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

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

Man has always sacrificed truth to his vanity, comfort and advantage. He lives not by truth but by make-believe.

W. Somerset Maugham
Life, Believe, Men
W. Somerset Maugham (2010). “The Summing Up”, p.291, Random House

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