W. Somerset Maugham Quotes - Page 16

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• There are few things so pleasant as a picnic eaten in perfect comfort.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Perfect, Comfort, Picnics

  83 Copy quote

• It takes two to make a love affair and a mans meat is too often a woman's poison.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Love, Two, Meat

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

  7 Copy quote

• There are men whose sense of humour is so ill developed that they still bear a grudge against Copernicus because he dethroned them from the central position in the universe. They feel it a personal affront that they can no longer consider themselves the pivot upon which turns the whole of created things.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Men, Copernicus, Bears

  "A Writer's Notebook (1901)". Book by W. Somerset Maugham, 1946.

  6 Copy quote

• Vaguely, as when you are studying a foreign language and read a page which at first you can make nothing of, till a word or a sentence gives you a clue; and on a sudden suspicion, as it were, of the sense flashes across your troubled wits, vaguely she gained an inkling into the workings of Walter's mind. It was like a dark and ominous landscape seen by a flash of lightning and in a moment hidden again by the night. She shuddered at what she saw.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Dark, Night, Giving

  7 Copy quote

• But I am not sure it would contain any short stories. For the short story is a minor art, and it must content itself with moving, exciting and amusing the reader. ...I do not think that there is any (short story) that will give the reader that thrill, that rapture, that fruitful energy which great art can produce.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Art, Moving, Thinking

  6 Copy quote

• You know, when one's in love,' I said, 'and things go all wrong, one's terribly unhappy and one thinks one won't ever get over it. But you'll be astounded to learn what the sea will do.' What do you mean?' she smiled. Well, love isn't a good sailor and it languishes on a sea voyage. You'll be surprised when you have the Atlantic between you and Larry to find how slight the pang is that before you sailed seemed intolerable.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Mean, Thinking, Sea

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• I can only guess that it made the world he went back to...strangely without meaning. Though he lived in it, though he even enjoyed it, it remained utterly remote. I think it had lost sense for him. In his heart was the reflection of a lovely dream that he could never quite recall.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Change, Dream, Memories

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• All important persons have about them someone in a subordinate position who has their ear. These dependents are very susceptible to slights, and, when they are not treated as they think they should be, will by well-directed shafts, constantly repeated, poison the minds of their patrons against those who have provoked their animosity. It is well to keep in with them.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Thinking, Mind, Important

  4 Copy quote

• The dead look so terribly dead when they're dead.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Looks

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• 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.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Hero, Talking, People

  "A Writer's Notebook" by W. Somerset Maugham, Country Life Press, (p. 196), 1949.

  4 Copy quote

• Because a man can write great works he is none the less a man.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Writing, Greatness, Men

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

  4 Copy quote

• It must be that to govern a nation you need a specific talent and that this may very well exist without general ability.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Government, Needs, May

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

  4 Copy quote

• The humorist has a good eye for the humbug; he does not always recognize the saint.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Humor, Eye, Doe

  "Biography/ Personal Quotes". www.imdb.com.

  5 Copy quote

• The inclination to digress is human. But the dramatist must avoid it even more strenuously than the saint must avoid sin, for while sin may be venial, digression is mortal.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Saint, May, Sin

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

  4 Copy quote

• The novel may stimulate you to think. It may satisfy your aesthetic sense. It may arouse your moral emotions. But if it does not entertain you it is a bad novel.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Thinking, Doe, May

  4 Copy quote

• People are always a little disconcerted when you don't recognize them, they are so important to themselves, it is a shock to discover of what small importance they are to others. [The human element]

  W. Somerset Maugham

  People, Important, Elements

  4 Copy quote

• The ideal has many names, and beauty is but one of them.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Beauty, Names, Ideals

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

  4 Copy quote

• You will have to learn many tedious things,...which you will forget the moment you have passed your final examination, but in anatomy it is better to have learned and lost than never to have learned at all.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Learning, Finals, Examination

  Of Human Bondage Ch. LIV

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• Some American delusions: 1) That there is no class-consciousness in the country. 2) That American coffee is good. 3) That Americans are business-like. 4) That Americans are highly-sexed and that redheads are more highly sexed than others.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Country, Travel, Coffee

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• The worst of having so much tact was that you never quite knew whether other people were acting naturally or being tactful too. [The human element]

  W. Somerset Maugham

  People, Acting, Elements

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• In business sharp practice sometimes succeeds, but in art honesty is not only the best but the only policy.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Art, Honesty, Practice

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• I never spend more than one hour in a gallery. That is as long as one's power of appreciation persists.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Appreciation, Art, Long

  W. Somerset Maugham (2008). “The Razor's Edge”, p.22, Random House

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• There is only one way to win hearts and that is to make oneself like unto those of whom one would be loved.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Heart, Winning, Would Be

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• A man ought to work. That's what he's here for. That's how he contributes to the welfare of the community.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Men, Community, Welfare

  W. Somerset Maugham (2008). “The Razor's Edge”, p.77, Random House

  4 Copy quote

• Why did you look at the sunset?' Philip answered with his mouth full: Because I was happy.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Sunset, Looks, Mouths

  W. Somerset Maugham (2011). “Of Human Bondage (人性枷鎖)”, p.1885, Hyweb Technology Co. Ltd.

  4 Copy quote

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