W. Somerset Maugham Quotes - Page 6

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• How can I be reasonable? To me our love was everything and you were my whole life. It is not very pleasant to realize that to you it was only an episode.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Break Up, Broken Heart, Breakup

  W. Somerset Maugham (2009). “The Painted Veil”, p.70, Random House

  52 Copy quote

• Almost all the people who’ve had the most effect on me I seem to have met by chance, yet looking back it seems as though I couldn’t but have met them.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  People, Chance, Mets

  4 Copy quote

• Impropriety is the soul of wit.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Inspirational, Life, Advice

  Moon and Sixpence (1919) ch. 4

  11 Copy quote

• Failure make people bitter and cruel. Success improves the character of the man.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Failure, Character, Men

  27 Copy quote

• For my part I cannot believe in a God who is angry with me because I do not believe in him. I cannot believe in a God who is less tolerant than I. I cannot believe in a God who has neither humour nor common sense.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Atheist, Believe, Common Sense

  "The Summing Up".

  9 Copy quote

• I have always been convinced that if a woman once made up her mind to marry a man, nothing but instant flight could save him.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Sex, Men, Mind

  W. Somerset Maugham (2010). “Collected Short Stories”, p.318, Random House

  6 Copy quote

• Beauty is an ecstasy; it is as simple as hunger.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Simple, Hunger, Ecstasy

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

  11 Copy quote

• Women's hearts are like old china, none the worse for a break or two.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Women, Heart, Two

  4 Copy quote

• I am told that today rather more than 60 per cent of the men who go to university go on a Government grant. This is a new class that has entered upon the scene. It is the white-collar proletariat. They do not go to university to acquire culture but to get a job, and when they have got one, scamp it. They have no manners and are woefully unable to deal with any social predicament. Their idea of a celebration is to go to a public house and drink six beers. They are mean, malicious and envious . They are scum.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Jobs, Mean, Beer

  15 Copy quote

• I'd sooner be smashed into a mangled pulp by a bus when we cross the street than look forward to a life like yours.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Looks, Crosses, Bus

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

  16 Copy quote

• The tragedy of love is indifference.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Love, Life, Tragedy

  The Trembling of a Leaf ch. 4 (1921)

  5 Copy quote

• We do not write because we want to; we write because we have to.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Writing, Want

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

  12 Copy quote

• It is pleasure that lurks in the practice of every one of your virtues. Man performs actions because they are good for him, and when they are good for other people as well they are thought virtuous: if he finds pleasure in helping others he is benevolent; if he finds pleasure in working for society he is public-spirited; but it is for your private pleasure that you give twopence to a beggar as much as it is for my private pleasure that I drink another whiskey and soda. I, less of a humbug than you, neither applaud myself for my pleasure nor demand your admiration.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Helping Others, Men, Practice

  8 Copy quote

• When he sacrifices himself man for a moment is greater than God, for how can God, infinite and omnipotent, sacrifice himself?

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Atheist, Sacrifice, Men

  4 Copy quote

• No affectation of peculiarity can conceal a commonplace mind.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Mind, Commonplace

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

  10 Copy quote

• People talk of beauty lightly, and having no feeling for words, they use that one carelessly, so that it loses its force; and the thing it stands for, sharing its name with a hundred trivial objects, is deprived of dignity. They call beautiful a dress, a dog, a sermon; and when they are face to face with Beauty cannot recognise it.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Beautiful, Dog, Names

  W. Somerset Maugham (2009). “The Moon and Sixpence”, p.264, The Floating Press

  18 Copy quote

• Self-control might be as passionate and as active as the surrender to passion.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Passion, Self, Might

  W. Somerset Maugham (2013). “The Essential W. Somerset Maugham Collection”, p.2043, eBookIt.com

  10 Copy quote

• The humour of Dostoievsky is the humour of a barloafer who ties a kettle to a dog's tail.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Dog, Ties, Tails

  7 Copy quote

• Oh, it's always the same,' she sighed, 'if you want men to behave well to you, you must be beastly to them; if you treat them decently they make you suffer for it.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Men, Suffering, Want

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

  23 Copy quote

• As the cosmos are in place, so be it with your life.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Life, Cosmos

  9 Copy quote

• The common idea that success spoils people by making them vain, egotistic and self-complacent is erroneous; on the contrary it makes them, for the most part, humble, tolerant and kind.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Inspirational, Success, Congratulations

  Summing Up (1938) p. 187

  90 Copy quote

• When things are at their worst, I find something always happens.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Entrepreneur, Negativity, Human Bondage

  W. Somerset Maugham (2016). “Of Human Bondage (Diversion Classics)”, p.439, Diversion Books

  10 Copy quote

• Women are often under the impression that men are much more madly in love with them than they really are.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Love, Men, Madly In Love

  W. Somerset Maugham (2009). “The Painted Veil”, p.52, Random House

  15 Copy quote

• In the conduct of life we make use of deliberation to justify ourselves in doing what we want to do.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Use, Want, Ethics

  W. Somerset Maugham (2010). “The Summing Up”, p.49, Random House

  4 Copy quote

• What do we any of us have but our illusions? And what do we ask of others but that we be allowed to keep them?

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Illusion, Resignation, Asks

  7 Copy quote

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