W. Somerset Maugham Quotes - Page 20

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• There was an immeasurable distance between the quick and the dead: they did not seem to belong to the same species; and it was strange to think that but a little while before they had spoken and moved and eaten and laughed.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Distance, Thinking, Littles

  W. Somerset Maugham (2016). “Of Human Bondage (Diversion Classics)”, p.363, Diversion Books

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• It's always difficult to make conversation with a drunk, and there's no denying it, the sober are at a disadvantage with him.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Drinking, Drunk, Sober

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• Cronshaw stopped for a moment to drink. He had pondered for twenty years the problem whether he loved liquor because it made him talk or whether he loved conversation because it made him thirsty.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Years, Twenties, Problem

  W. Somerset Maugham (2016). “Of Human Bondage (Diversion Classics)”, p.264, Diversion Books

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• I know that you're selfish, selfish beyond words, and I know that you haven't the nerve of a rabbit, I know you're a liar and a humbug, I know that you're utterly contemptible. And the tragic part is'--her face was on a sudden distraught with pain--'the tragic part is that notwithstanding I love you with all my heart.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Pain, Selfish, Women

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• Art is triumphant when it can use convention as an instrument of its own purpose.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Art, Purpose, Use

  W. Somerset Maugham (2008). “The Razor's Edge”, p.264, Random House

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• Through the history of the world there have always been exploiters and exploited. There always will be ... because the great mass of men are made by nature to be slaves, they are unfit to control themselves, and for their own good need masters.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Men, Atheism, Needs

  W. Somerset Maugham (2009). “Christmas Holiday”, p.228, Random House

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• D'you call life a bad job? Never! We've had our ups and downs, we've had our struggles, we've always been poor, but it's been worth it, ay, worth it a hundred times I say when I look round at my children.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Jobs, Children, Struggle

  W. Somerset Maugham (2013). “The Essential W. Somerset Maugham Collection”, p.2171, eBookIt.com

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• She could not admit but that he had remarkable qualities, sometimes she thought that there was even in him a strange and unattractive greatness; it was curious then that she could not love him, but loved still a man whose worthlessness was now so clear to her.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Greatness, Men, Quality

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• The artist can within limits make what he likes of his life... It is only the artist, and maybe the criminal, who can make his own.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Artist, Atheism, Criminals

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• The arguments for immortality, weak when you take them one by one, are no more cogent when you take them together... For my part, I cannot see how consciousness can persist when its physical basis has been destroyed, and I am too sure of the interconnection of my body and my mind to think that any survival of my my consciousness apart from my body would be in any sense a survival of myself.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Thinking, Survival, Mind

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• She was a fool and he knew it and because he loved her it had made no difference.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Differences, Fool, Made

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• It has amazed me that the most incongruous traits should exist in the same person and, for all that, yield a plausible harmony.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Character, Yield, Harmony

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

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• Everyone had some defect, or body or of mind: he thought of all the people he had known (the whole world was like a sick house and there was no rhyme or reason in it), he saw a long procession, deformed in body, warped in mind, some with illness of the flesh, weak hearts or weak lungs, and some with illness of the spirit, languor of will, or craving for liquor. At that moment he felt a holy compassion for them all. …The words of the dying God crossed his memory: Forgive them, for they know not what they do.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Memories, Heart, Compassion

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• Has it occurred to you that transmigration is at once an explanation and a justification of the evil of the world? If the evils we suffer are the result of sins committed in our past lives, we can bear them with resignation and hope that if in this one we strive toward virtue out future lives will be less afflicted.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Past, Evil, Suffering

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• There are men who are possessed by an urge so strong to do some particular thing that they can't help themselves, they've got to do it. They're prepared to sacrifice everything to satisfy their yearning.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Strong, Writing, Sacrifice

  "The Razor's Edge". Book by W. Somerset Maugham, 1944.

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• I don't know why it is that the religious never ascribe common sense to God.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Religious, Common Sense, Common

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• It's asking a great deal that things should appeal to your reason as well as your sense of the aesthetic. - Of Human Bondage

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Asking, Reason, Human Bondage

  W. Somerset Maugham (2017). “Of Human Bondage”, p.470, Open Road Media

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• Her tears were partly tears of happiness, for she felt that the strangeness between them was gone. She loved him now with a new love because he had made her suffer.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Suffering, Tears, Gone

  W. Somerset Maugham (2009). “Of Human Bondage”, p.64, The Floating Press

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• Was it necessary to tell me that you wanted nothing in the world but me?' The corners of his mouth drooped peevishly. Oh, my dear, it's rather hard to take quite literally the things a man says when he's in love with you.' Didn't you mean them?' At the moment.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Love You, Mean, Men

  W. Somerset Maugham (2009). “The Painted Veil”, p.69, Random House

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• The ideas for stories that thronged my brain would not let me rest till I had got rid of them by writing them.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Writing, Ideas, Brain

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• Kant thought things, not because they were true, but because he was Kant.

  W. Somerset Maugham

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

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• Writing is a wholetime job: no professional writer can afford only to write when he feels like it.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Jobs, Writing, Feels

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• But there are people who take salt with their coffee. They say it gives a tang, a savour, which is peculiar and fascinating. In the same way there are certain places, surrounded by a halo of romance, to which the inevitable disillusionment you experience on seeing them gives a singular spice. You had expected something wholly beautiful and you get an impression which is infinitely more complicated than any that beauty can give you. It is the weakness in the character of a great man which may make him less admirable but certainly more interesting. Nothing had prepared me for Honolulu.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Beautiful, Coffee, Character

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• Usage is the only test. I prefer a phrase that is easy and unaffected to a phrase that is grammatical.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Phrases, Tests, Easy

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• It was like making a blunder at a party; there was nothing to do about it, it was dreadfully mortifying, but it showed a lack of sense to ascribe too much importance to it.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Party, Too Much, Blunders

  W. Somerset Maugham (2009). “The Painted Veil”, p.151, Random House

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