W. Somerset Maugham Quotes

The crown of literature is poetry... view

By: W. Somerset Maugham

The essence of the beautiful is unity in variety... view

By: W. Somerset Maugham

The great American novel has not only already been written, it has already been rejected... view

By: W. Somerset Maugham

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

By: W. Somerset Maugham

The most useful thing about a principle is that it can always be sacrificed to expediency... view

By: W. Somerset Maugham

The common idea that success spoils people by making them vain, egotistic and self-complacent is erroneous.. view

By: W. Somerset Maugham

The world in general doesn't know what to make of originality.. view

By: W. Somerset Maugham

People ask for criticism, but they only want praise... view

By: W. Somerset Maugham

The world is quickly bored by the recital of misfortune, and willing avoids the sight of distress... view

By: W. Somerset Maugham

The trouble with young writers is that they are all in their sixties... view

By: W. Somerset Maugham

The artist produces for the liberation of his soul. It is his nature to create as it is the nature of water to run down the hill... view

By: W. Somerset Maugham

The ability to quote is a serviceable substitute for wit... view

By: W. Somerset Maugham

She had a pretty gift for quotation, which is a serviceable substitute for wit... view

By: W. Somerset Maugham

Sentimentality is the only sentiment that rubs you the wrong way... view

By: W. Somerset Maugham

Perfection has one grave defect: it is apt to be dull... view

By: W. Somerset Maugham

Only a mediocre person is always at his best... view

By: W. Somerset Maugham

No egoism is so insufferable as that of the Christian with regard to his soul... view

By: W. Somerset Maugham

Old age is ready to undertake tasks that youth shirked because they would take too long... view

By: W. Somerset Maugham

Old age has its pleasures, which, though different, are not less than the pleasures of youth... view

By: W. Somerset Maugham

The writer is more concerned to know than to judge... view

By: W. Somerset Maugham

Perfection is a trifle dull. It is not the least of life's ironies that this, which we all aim at, is better not quite achieved... view

By: W. Somerset Maugham

We learn resignation not by our own suffering, but by the suffering of others... view

By: W. Somerset Maugham

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... view

By: W. Somerset Maugham

It is not wealth one asks for, but just enough to preserve one's dignity, to work unhampered, to be generous, frank and independent... view

By: W. Somerset Maugham

You know what the critics are. If you tell the truth they only say you're cynical and it does an author no good to get a reputation for cynicism... view

By: W. Somerset Maugham

You are not angry with people when you laugh at them. Humor teaches tolerance... view

By: W. Somerset Maugham

Writing is the supreme solace... view

By: W. Somerset Maugham

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

By: W. Somerset Maugham

When you are young you take the kindness people show you as your right... view

By: W. Somerset Maugham

When I read a book I seem to read it with my eyes only, but now and then I come across a passage, perhaps only a phrase, which has a meaning for me, and it becomes part of me... view

By: W. Somerset Maugham

You can do anything in this world if you are prepared to take the consequences... view

By: W. Somerset Maugham

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... view

By: W. Somerset Maugham

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

By: W. Somerset Maugham

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

By: W. Somerset Maugham

We have long passed the Victorian Era when asterisks were followed after a certain interval by a baby... view

By: W. Somerset Maugham

We are not the same persons this year as last.. view

By: W. Somerset Maugham

Tradition is a guide and not a jailer... view

By: W. Somerset Maugham

Tolerance is another word for indifference... view

By: W. Somerset Maugham

Things were easier for the old novelists who saw people all of a piece. Speaking generally, their heroes were good through and through, their villains wholly bad... view

By: W. Somerset Maugham

There is no explanation for evil. It must be looked upon as a necessary part of the order of the universe. To ignore it is childish, to bewail it senseless... view

By: W. Somerset Maugham

There are two good things in life - freedom of thought and freedom of action... view

By: W. Somerset Maugham

There are three rules for writing a novel. Unfortunately, no one knows what they are... view

By: W. Somerset Maugham