W. Somerset Maugham Quotes - Page 13

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Loving-kindness is the better part of goodness.

W. Somerset Maugham

Kindness, Goodness, Loving Kindness

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

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No action is in itself good or bad, but only such according to convention.

W. Somerset Maugham

Action, Conventions

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If people waited to know one another before they married, the world wouldn't be as overpopulated as it is now.

W. Somerset Maugham

Wisdom, People, Intelligence

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By the time a man notices that he is no longer young, his youth has long since left him.

W. Somerset Maugham

Love, Men, Long

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It has been said that metaphysics is the finding of bad reasons for what we believe upon instinct.

W. Somerset Maugham

Philosophy, Believe, Reason

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It is good to be on your guard against an Englishman who speaks French perfectly; he is very likely to be a card-sharper or an attache in the diplomatic service.

W. Somerset Maugham

Speaks French, Cards, Diplomatic

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

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They say a woman always remembers her first lover with affection; but perhaps she does not always remember him.

W. Somerset Maugham

Doe, Firsts, Lovers

W. Somerset Maugham (2012). “The Moon and Sixpence”, p.134, Courier Corporation

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When you have loved as she has loved, you grow old beautifully.

W. Somerset Maugham

Love, Age, Aging

The Circle

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Common sense and nature will do a lot to make the pilgrimage of life not too difficult.

W. Somerset Maugham

Life, Nature, Common Sense

W. Somerset Maugham (2008). “The Razor's Edge”, p.186, Random House

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Great writers create; writers of smaller gifts copy

W. Somerset Maugham

Copies, Great Writers

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I'm not only my spirit buy my body, and who can decide how much I, my individual self, am conditioned by the accident of my body? Would Byron have been Byron but for his club foot, or Dostoyevsky Dostoyevsky without his epilepsy?

W. Somerset Maugham

Self, Epilepsy, Feet

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Because women can do nothing except love, they've given it a ridiculous importance. They want to persuade us that it's the whole of life. It's an insignificant part.

W. Somerset Maugham

Want, Ridiculous, Given

W. Somerset Maugham (2012). “The Moon and Sixpence”, p.108, Courier Corporation

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Common-sense appears to be only another name for the thoughtlessness of the unthinking. It is made of the prejudices of childhood, the idiosyncrasies of individual character and the opinion of the newspapers.

W. Somerset Maugham

Character, Names, Common Sense

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When some incident has shattered the career you’ve mapped out for yourself, a folly, a crime or a misfortune, you mustn’t think you’re down and out. It may be a stroke of luck, and when you look back years later you may say to yourself that you wouldn’t for anything in the world exchange the new life disaster has forced upon you for the dull, humdrum existence you would have led if circumstances hadn’t intervened.

W. Somerset Maugham

Thinking, Years, Careers

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I now, weak, old, diseased, poor, dying, hold still my soul in my hands, and I regret nothing.

W. Somerset Maugham

Regret, Hands, Soul

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No author can create a character out of nothing. He must have a model to give him a starting point; but then his imagination goes to work, he builds him up, adding a trait here, a trait there, which his model did not possess.

W. Somerset Maugham

Writing, Character, Giving

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I never met an author who admitted that people did not buy his book because it was dull.

W. Somerset Maugham

Book, Reading, People

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

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The secret of play-writing can be given in two maxims: stick to the point, and, whenever you can, cut.

W. Somerset Maugham

Writing, Cutting, Play

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

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

W. Somerset Maugham

Writing, Young Writers, Trouble

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On the earth, satellite of a star speeding through space, living things had arisen under the influence of conditions which were part of the planet's history; and as there had been a beginning of life upon it, so, under the influence of other conditions, there would be an end: man, no more significant than other forms of life, had come not as the climax of creation but as a physical reaction to the environment.

W. Somerset Maugham

Stars, Men, Space

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He found that it was easy to make a heroic gesture, but hard to abide by its results.

W. Somerset Maugham

Gestures, Heroic, Easy

W. Somerset Maugham (2013). “The Essential W. Somerset Maugham Collection”, p.1809, eBookIt.com

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Culture is not just an ornament; it is the expression of a nation's character, and at the same time it is a powerful instrument to mould character. The end of culture is right living.

W. Somerset Maugham

Life, Powerful, Character

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I wonder how anyone can have the face to condemn others when he reflects upon his own thoughts.

W. Somerset Maugham

Faces, Wonder, Wit

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

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The writer is more concerned to know than to judge.

W. Somerset Maugham

Writing, Judging, Concerned

W. Somerset Maugham (2014). “The Great Novels and Short Stories of Somerset Maugham: One of the Finest Writers of Short Stories Who Ever Lived”, p.328, Skyhorse Publishing, Inc.

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A novelist must preserve a childlike belief in the importance of things which common sense considers of no great consequence.

W. Somerset Maugham

Common Sense, Novelists, Belief

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Born: January 25, 1874
Died: December 16, 1965
Occupation: Playwright
Cite this Page: Citation

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