W. Somerset Maugham Quotes - Page 19

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• It needs a good deal of philosophy not to be mortified by the thought of persons who have voluntarily abandoned everything that for the most of us makes life worth living and are devoid of envy of what they have missed. I have never made up my mind whether they are fools or wise men.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Wise, Philosophy, Men

  W. Somerset Maugham (1941). “the Gentleman in the Parlour”

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• Truth is not only stranger than fiction, it is more telling. To know that a thing actually happened gives it a poignancy, touches a chord, which a piece of acknowledged fiction misses. It is to touch this chord that some authors have done everything they could to give you the impression that they are telling the plain truth.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Giving, Missing, Fiction

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• Our wise old church...has discovered that if you will act as if you believed belief will be given to you; if you pray with doubt, but pray with sincerity, your doubt will be dispelled; if you will surrender yourself to the beauty of that liturgy the power of which over the human spirit has been proved by the experience of the ages, peace will descend upon you.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Wise, Doubt, Age

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• I knew that suffering did not enoble; it degraded. It made men selfish, petty and suspicious. It absorbed them in small things...it made them less than men; and I wrote ferociously that we learn resignation not by our own suffering, but by the suffering of others.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Selfish, Men, Suffering Of Others

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

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• 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".

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• Women are strange little beasts,' he said to Dr. Coutras. 'You can treat them like dogs, you can beat them till your arm aches, and still they love you.' He shrugged his shoulders. 'Of course, it is one of the most absurd illusions of Christianity that they have souls.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Dog, Love You, Soul

  W. Somerset Maugham (2012). “The Moon and Sixpence”, p.153, Courier Corporation

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• I am told that today rather more than 60 per cent of the men who go to the universities go on a Government grant. This is a new class that has entered upon the scene ... They are scum.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Men, Class, Goes On

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• The mathematician who after seeing Phedre asked: 'Qu'est que ca prouve?' was not such a fool as he has been generally made out. No one has ever been able to explain why the Doric temple of Paestum is more beautiful than a glass of cold beer except by bringing in considerations that have nothing to do with beauty.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Funny, Beauty, Beautiful

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• He did not care if she was heartless, vicious and vulgar, stupid and grasping, he loved her. He would rather have misery with one than happiness with the other.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Stupid, Romance, Heartless

  W. Somerset Maugham (2016). “Of Human Bondage (Diversion Classics)”, p.471, Diversion Books

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

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Luxury, Pleasure, Havana

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• 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

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• Are you sure you can prevent yourself from falling in love one of these days? Such things do happen, you know, even to the most prudent men.' Simon gave him a strange, one might even have thought a hostile, look. I should tear it out of my heart as I'd wrench out of my mouth a rotten tooth.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Falling In Love, Heart, Men

  W. Somerset Maugham (1939). “Christmas Holiday”

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• I do not think you want too much sincerity in society. It would be like an iron girder in a house of cards.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Thinking, House Of Cards, Iron

  W. Somerset Maugham (2017). “Plays Volume One”, p.171, Random House

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• The last words he said to me when I bade him good-night were: Tell Amy it's no good coming after me. Anyhow, I shall change my hotel, so she wouldn't be able to find me.' My own impression is that she's well rid of you,' I said. My dear fellow, I only hope you'll be able to make her see it. But women are very unintelligent.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Good Night, Amy, Able

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• Just as the painter thinks with his brush and paints the novelist thinks with his story.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Thinking, Novelists, Fiction

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• Marco Polo tells the tale of The Old Man in the Mountains and how he recruits new members to his Band of Assassins by means of drugs, beautiful women, lush gardens, and religious promises. The unfortunate thing about this world is that the good habits are much easier to give up than the bad ones.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Beautiful, Religious, Giving Up

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• 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

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• 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”

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• Art is merely the refuge which the ingenious have invented, when they were supplied with food and women, to escape the tediousness of life.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Art, Human Bondage, Refuge

  W. Somerset Maugham (2016). “Of Human Bondage (Diversion Classics)”, p.265, Diversion Books

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• Genius is talent provided with ideals. Genius starves while talent wears purple and fine linen. The man of genius of today will infifty years' time be in most cases no more than a man of talent.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Men, Years, Purple

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• The great critic … must be a philosopher, for from philosophy he will learn serenity, impartiality, and the transitoriness of human things.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Philosophy, Serenity, Philosopher

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

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• I thought it was only in revealed religion that a mistranslation improved the sense.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Atheism

  W. Somerset Maugham (2016). “Of Human Bondage (Diversion Classics)”, p.149, Diversion Books

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• The Riviera isn't only a sunny place for shady people.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  People, Shady, Sunny

  "Strictly Personal". Book by W. Somerset Maugham, Doubleday, Doran and co., inc., p. 156, 1941.

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• Art for art's sake makes no more sense than gin for gin's sake.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Art, Sake, Advertising

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• 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.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Brother, Book, Single Life

  "Newsweek" Magazine, May 23, 1960.

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