W. Somerset Maugham Quotes - Page 18

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• The nature of men and women - their essential nature - is so vile and despicable that if you were to portray a person as he really is, no one would believe you.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Love, Believe, Men

  4 Copy quote

• There is no need for the writer to eat a whole sheep to be able to tell you what mutton tastes like. It is enough if he eats a cutlet. But he should do that.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Sheep, Needs, Able

  W. Somerset Maugham (2011). “A Writer's Notebook”, p.230, Random House

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• There are directors who desire to be artistic. It is pathetic to compare the seriousness of their aim with the absurdity of their attainment.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Desire, Directors, Artistic

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• and he loved her suddenly because she loved him.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  W. Somerset Maugham (2013). “The Essential W. Somerset Maugham Collection”, p.1626, eBookIt.com

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

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Christian, Soul, Atheism

  "A Writer's Notebook". Book by W. Somerset Maugham, 1949.

  8 Copy quote

• Freedom! That was the thought that sung in her heart so that even though the future was so dim, it was iridescent like the mist over the river where the morning sun fell upon it. Freedom! Not only freedom from a bond that irked, and a companionship which depressed her; freedom, not only from the death which had threatened, but freedom from the love that had degraded her; freedom from all spiritual ties, the freedom of a disembodied spirit, and with freedom, courage , and a valiant unconcern for whatever was to come.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Spiritual, Morning, Heart

  7 Copy quote

• Music-hall songs provide the dull with wit, just as proverbs provide them with wisdom.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Song, Dull, Wit

  W. Somerset Maugham (2011). “A Writer's Notebook”, p.15, Random House

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• The highest activities of consciousness have their origins in physical occurrences of the brain, just as the loveliest melodies are not too sublime to be expressed by notes.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Sublime, Brain, Consciousness

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• If truth is a value it is because it is true and not because it is brave to speak it.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Truth, Brave, Speak

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• He did not care upon what terms he satisfied his passion. He had even a mad, melodramatic idea to drug her.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Passion, Ideas, Mad

  W. Somerset Maugham (2016). “Of Human Bondage (Diversion Classics)”, p.418, Diversion Books

  4 Copy quote

• This love was a torment, and he resented bitterly the subjugation in which it held him; he was a prisoner and he longed for freedom. Sometimes he awoke in the morning and felt nothing; his soul leaped, for he thought he was free; he loved no longer; but in a little while, as he grew wide awake, the pain settled in his heart, and he knew that he was not cured yet.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Morning, Pain, Heart

  W. Somerset Maugham (2013). “The Essential W. Somerset Maugham Collection”, p.1854, eBookIt.com

  4 Copy quote

• The author always loads his dice, but he must never let the reader see that he has done so.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Done, Dice, Reader

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• 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

  4 Copy quote

• In heaven, when the blessed use the telephone they will say what they have to say and not a word besides.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Blessed, Heaven, Use

  W. Somerset Maugham (1966). “A Maugham Twelve: Stories selected and with an introduction by Angus Wilson”

  4 Copy quote

• So long as some are strong and some are weak, the weak will be driven to the wall.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Strength, Strong, Wall

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

  4 Copy quote

• There is no more merit in being able to attach a correct description to a picture than in being able to find out what is wrong with a stalled motorcar. In each case it is special knowledge.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Knowledge, Special, Able

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• There's nothing the world loves more than a ready-made description which they can hang on to a man, and so save themselves all trouble in future.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Men, World Love, Trouble

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• He exulted in the possession of himself once more; he realized how much of the delight of the world he had lost when he was absorbed in that madness which they called love; he had had enough of it; he did not want to be in love anymore if love was that.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Delight, World, Want

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• Clearly much that seemed valid seemed so only because he had been taught it from earliest youth.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Prejudice, Taught, Youth

  W. Somerset Maugham (2016). “Of Human Bondage (Diversion Classics)”, p.355, Diversion Books

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• I don't think that women ought to sit down at table with men. It ruins conversation and I'm sure it's very bad for them. It puts ideas in their heads, and women are never at ease with themselves when they have ideas.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Men, Thinking, Ideas

  W. Somerset Maugham (2013). “The Essential W. Somerset Maugham Collection”, p.2031, eBookIt.com

  7 Copy quote

• You've been brought up like a gentleman and a Christian, and I should be false to the trust laid upon me by your dead father and mother if I allowed you to expose yourself to such temptation.' Well, I know I'm not a Christian and I'm beginning to doubt whether I'm a gentleman,' said Philip.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Christian, Mother, Father

  W. Somerset Maugham (2016). “Of Human Bondage (Diversion Classics)”, p.236, Diversion Books

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• The audience is a very curious animal. It is shrewd rather than intelligent. Its mental capacity is less than that of its most intellectual members.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Animal, Intelligent, Intellectual

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

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• By the time an actor knows how to act any sort of part he is often too old to act any but a few.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Actors, Know How, Knows

  W. Somerset Maugham (2010). “The Summing Up”, p.106, Random House

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• For if the proper study of mankind is man, it is evidently more sensible to occupy yourself with the coherent, substantial and significant creatures of fiction than with the irrational and shadowy figures of real life.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Real, Men, Occupy Yourself

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

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• It is unfair to expect a politician to live in private up to the statements he makes in public.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Society, Politics, Politician

  W. Somerset Maugham (2017). “Plays Volume One”, p.161, Random House

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