W. Somerset Maugham Quotes - Page 5

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• if you'd ever had a grown-up daughter you'd know that by comparison a bucking steer is easy to manage. And as to knowing what goes on inside her - well, it's much better to pretend you're the simple, innocent old fool she almost certainly takes you for.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Daughter, Mother, Simple

  19 Copy quote

• Sometimes people carry to such perfection the mask they have assumed that in due course they actually become the person they seem.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  People, Perfection, Sometimes

  W. Somerset Maugham (2013). “The Essential W. Somerset Maugham Collection”, p.1397, eBookIt.com

  23 Copy quote

• Words have weight, sound and appearance; it is only by considering these that you can write a sentence that is good to look at and good to listen to.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Writing, Sound, Looks

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

  11 Copy quote

• Unconsciously, perhaps, we treasure the power we have over people by their regard for our opinion of them, and we hate those upon whom we have no such influence.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Hate, People, Treasure

  W. Somerset Maugham (2013). “The Essential W. Somerset Maugham Collection”, p.1396, eBookIt.com

  10 Copy quote

• Perfection is a trifle dull. It is not the least of life's ironies that this, which we all aim at, is better not quite achieved.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Perfection, Dull, Irony

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

  9 Copy quote

• He had heard people speak contemptuously of money: he wondered if they had ever tried to do without it.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Money, People, Speak

  W. Somerset Maugham (2013). “The Essential W. Somerset Maugham Collection”, p.2219, eBookIt.com

  31 Copy quote

• There are times when I look over the various parts of my character with perplexity. I recognize that I am made up of several persons and that the person that at the moment has the upper hand will inevitably give place to another. But which is the real one? All of them or none?

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Real, Character, Hands

  6 Copy quote

• If nobody spoke unless he had something to say, the human race would very soon lose the use of speech.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Race, Silence, Use

  21 Copy quote

• Now the answer ... is plain, but it is so unpalatable that most men will not face it. There is no reason for life and life has no meaning.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Men, Atheism, Answers

  7 Copy quote

• The essential element of love is a belief in its own eternity.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Love Is, Elements, Essentials

  W. Somerset Maugham (2013). “The Essential W. Somerset Maugham Collection”, p.2527, eBookIt.com

  13 Copy quote

• When I was young I was amazed at Plutarch's statement that the elder Cato began at the age of eighty to learn Greek. I am amazed no longer. Old age is ready to undertake tasks that youth shirked because they would take too long.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Time, Learning, Long

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

  7 Copy quote

• I'll give you my opinion of the human race in a nutshell... their heart's in the right place, but their head is a thoroughly inefficient organ.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Heart, Race, Giving

  The Summing Up

  8 Copy quote

• I want a girl because I want to bring her up so that she shan't make the mistakes I've made. When I look back upon the girl I was I hate myself. But I never had a chance. I'm going to bring up my daughter so that she's free and can stand on her own feet. I´m not going to bring a child into the world, and love her, and bring her up, just so that some man may want to sleep with her so much that he's willing to provide her with board and lodging for the rest of her life.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Girl, Daughter, Children

  W. Somerset Maugham (2009). “The Painted Veil”, p.204, Random House

  36 Copy quote

• A bird in the hand was worth two in the bush, he told her, to which she retorted that a proverb was the last refuge of the mentally destitute.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Hands, Two, Bird

  6 Copy quote

• You learn more quickly under the guidance of experienced teachers. You waste a lot of time going down blind alleys if you have no one to lead you.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Inspirational, Education, Teacher

  W. Somerset Maugham (2008). “The Razor's Edge”, p.34, Random House

  8 Copy quote

• One can be very much in love with a woman without wishing to spend the rest of one's life with her.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Women, Wish, Human Bondage

  7 Copy quote

• Love is only a dirty trick played on us to achieve continuation of the species.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Love, Sarcastic, Depressing

  83 Copy quote

• Man's desire for the approval of his fellows is so strong, his dread of their censure so violent, that he himself has brought his enemy (conscience) within his gates; and it keeps watch over him, vigilant always in the interests of its master to crush any half-formed desire to break away from the herd.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Crush, Strong, Men

  6 Copy quote

• Tradition is a guide and not a jailer.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Teaching, Diversity, Social Justice

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

  9 Copy quote

• It is salutary to train oneself to be no more affected by censure than by praise.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Sad, Courage, Praise

  W. Somerset Maugham (2010). “The Summing Up”, p.220, Random House

  9 Copy quote

• I travel because I like to move from place to place, I enjoy the sense of freedom it gives me, it pleases me to be rid of ties, responsibilities, duties, I like the unknown; I meet odd people who amuse me for a moment and sometimes suggest a theme for a composition; I am often tired of myself and I have a notion that by travel I can add to my personality and so change myself a little. I do not bring back from the journey quite the same self that I took

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Change, Moving, Tired

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

  5 Copy quote

• Of all the hokum with which this country [America] is riddled, the most odd is the common notion that it is free of class distinctions.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Country, Class, America

  W. Somerset Maugham (2011). “A Writer's Notebook”, p.232, Random House

  23 Copy quote

• The trouble is that thinking looks like loafing. Who wants to pay people for daydreaming?

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Inspirational, Teaching, Learning

  13 Copy quote

• Like all weak men he laid an exaggerated stress on not changing one's mind.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Stress, Men, Weak Man

  Of Human Bondage ch. 39 (1915)

  10 Copy quote

• A state of reverie does not avoid reality, it accedes to reality.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Reality, Doe, States

  16 Copy quote

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