W. Somerset Maugham Quotes About Pleasure

Quotes about: Pleasure

• One cannot find peace in work or in pleasure, in the world or in a convent, but only in one's soul.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Soul, World, Finding Peace

  W. Somerset Maugham (2009). “The Painted Veil”, p.119, Random House

• 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

• The complete life, the perfect pattern, includes old age as well as youth and maturity. The beauty of the morning and the radiance of noon are good, but it would be a very silly person who drew the curtains and turned on the light in order to shut out the tranquillity of the evening. Old age has its pleasures, which, though different, are not less than the pleasures of youth.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Beauty, Morning, Silly

  W. Somerset Maugham (1954). “Mr. Maugham Himself”

• 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

• You will find as you grow older that the first thing needful to make the world a tolerable place to live in is to recognize the inevitable selfishness of humanity. You demand unselfishness from others, which is a preposterous claim that they should sacrifice their desires to yours. Why should they? When you are reconciled to the fact that each is for himself in the world you will ask less from your fellows. They will not disappoint you, and you will look upon them more charitably. Men seek but one thing in life -- their pleasure.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Sacrifice, Men, Things In Life

• 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

• A good Havana is one of the best pleasures that I know.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Luxury, Pleasure, Havana

• When she liked anyone it was quite natural for her to go to bed with him. She never thought twice about it. It was not vice; it wasn't lasciviousness; it was her nature. She gave herself as naturally as the sun gives heat or the flowers their perfume. It was a pleasure to her and she liked to give pleasure to others.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Funny, Sex, Humorous

  W. Somerset Maugham (1930). “Cakes and Ale”

• Beauty is also a Gift of God, one of the most rare and precious, and we should be thankful if we are happy enough to possess it and thankful, if we are not, that others possess it for our pleasure.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Being Thankful, Enough, Pleasure

• He knew that all things human are transitory and therefore that it must cease one day or another. He looked forward to that day with eager longing. Love was like a parasite in his heart, nourishing a hateful existence on his life's blood; it absorbed his existence so intensely that he could take pleasure in nothing else.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Heart, Blood, One Day

  W. Somerset Maugham (2016). “Of Human Bondage (Diversion Classics)”, p.416, Diversion Books

• But Philip was impatient with himself; he called to mind his idea of the pattern of life: the unhappiness he had suffered was no more than part of a decoration which was elaborate and beautiful; he told himself strenuously that he must accept with gaiety everything, dreariness and excitement, pleasure and pain, because it added to the richness of the design.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Beautiful, Pain, Ideas

  W. Somerset Maugham (2009). “Of Human Bondage”, p.1260, The Floating Press

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

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Birthday, Time, Age

  W. Somerset Maugham (1954). “Mr. Maugham Himself”

• It is pleasure that lurks in the practice of every one of your virtues. Man performs actions because they are good for him, and when they are good for other people as well they are thought virtuous: if he finds pleasure in helping others he is benevolent; if he finds pleasure in working for society he is public-spirited; but it is for your private pleasure that you give twopence to a beggar as much as it is for my private pleasure that I drink another whiskey and soda. I, less of a humbug than you, neither applaud myself for my pleasure nor demand your admiration.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Helping Others, Men, Practice

• It is clear that men accept an immediate pain rather than an immediate pleasure, but only because they expect a greater pleasure in the future. Often the pleasure is illusory, but their error in calculation is no refutation of the rule.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Country, Children, Pain

  "The Essential W. Somerset Maugham Collection".

• I did not believe him capable of love. That is an emotion in which tenderness is an essential part, but Strickland had no tenderness either for himself or for others; there is in love a sense of weakness, a desire to protect, an eagerness to do good and to give pleasure--if not unselfishness, at all events a selfishness which marvellously conceals itself; it has in it a certain diffidence.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Believe, Giving, Desire

  W. Somerset Maugham (2006). “The Moon and Sixpence”, p.84, Courier Corporation

• Men seek but one thing in life - their pleasure.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Men, Things In Life, Pleasure

  W. Somerset Maugham (2016). “Of Human Bondage (Diversion Classics)”, p.291, Diversion Books

• The spirit is often most free when the body is satiated with pleasure; indeed, sometimes the stars shine more brightly seen from the gutter than from the hilltop.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Stars, Shining, Gutters

• Some people read for instruction, which is praiseworthy, and some for pleasure, which is innocent, but not a few read from habit, and I suppose that this is neither innocent or praiseworthy. Of that lamentable company am I. Conversation after a time bores me, games tire me and my own thoughts, which we are told are the unfailing resource of a sensible man, have a tendency to run dry. Then I fly to my book as the opium-smoker to his pipe.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Running, Book, Men

  W. Somerset Maugham (2009). “Collected Short Stories”, p.11, Random House

• facebook
• twitter
• googleplus
• email
• linkedin

• facebook
• twitter
• googleplus
• email
• linkedin