W. Somerset Maugham Quotes - Page 7

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• You know, of course, that the Tasmanians, who never committed adultery, are now extinct.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Sex, Adultery, Committed

  68 Copy quote

• Perhaps some deep-rooted atavism urges the wanderer back to lands which his ancestors left in the dim beginnings of history. Sometimes a man hits upon a place to which he mysteriously feels that he belongs. Here is the home he sought, and he will settle amid scenes that he has never seen before, among men he has never known, as though they were familiar to him from his birth. Here at last he finds rest.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Home, Men, Land

  W. Somerset Maugham (2013). “The Essential W. Somerset Maugham Collection”, p.1429, eBookIt.com

  8 Copy quote

• Beauty is an ecstasy; it is as simple as hunger. There is really nothing to be said about it. It is like the perfume of a rose: you can smell it and that is all.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Beauty, Simple, Smell

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

  23 Copy quote

• Old age has its pleasures, which, though different, are not less than the pleasures of youth.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Birthday, Time, Age

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

  62 Copy quote

• No married man's ever made up his mind until he's heard what his wife has got to say about it.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Men, Wife, Mind

  5 Copy quote

• A writer need not devour a whole sheep in order to know what mutton tastes like, but he must at least eat a chop. Unless he gets his facts right, his imagination will lead him into all kinds of nonsense, and the facts he is most likely to get right are the facts of his own experience.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Sheep, Order, Imagination

  11 Copy quote

• Life is really very fantastic, and one has to have a peculiar sense of humour to see the fun of it. [Virtue]

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Fun, Peculiar, Life Is

  5 Copy quote

• A little smoke lost in the air, that was the life of a man.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Men, Air, Littles

  W. Somerset Maugham (2009). “The Painted Veil”, p.160, Random House

  4 Copy quote

• It requires the feminine temperament to repeat the same thing three times with unabated zest.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Zest, Three, Feminine

  W. Somerset Maugham (2012). “The Moon and Sixpence”, p.36, Courier Corporation

  10 Copy quote

• Men have ascribed to God imperfections that they would deplore in themselves.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Men, Imperfection, Religion

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

  4 Copy quote

• Charm and nothing but charm at last grows a little tiresome. It's a relief then to deal with a man who isn't quite so delightful but a little more sincere.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Men, Relief, Littles

  6 Copy quote

• Affection is created by habit, community of interests, convenience and the desire of companionship. It is a comfort rather than an exhilaration.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Community, Desire, Comfort

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

  7 Copy quote

• He is not famous. It may be that he never will be. It may be that when his life at last comes to an end he will leave no more trace of his sojourn on earth than a stone thrown into a river leaves on the surface of the water. But it may be that the way of life that he has chosen for himself and the peculiar strength and sweetness of his character may have an ever-growing influence over his fellow men so that, long after his death perhaps, it may be realized that there lived in this age a very remarkable creature.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Character, Men, Rivers

  12 Copy quote

• You tend to close your eyes to truth, beauty and goodness because they give no scope to your sense of the ridiculous.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Happiness, Eye, Giving

  W. Somerset Maugham (2010). “The Summing Up”, p.65, Random House

  9 Copy quote

• When I was young I had an elderly friend who used often to ask me to stay with him in the country. He was a religious man and he read prayers to the assembled household every morning. But he had crossed out in pencil all the passages that praised God. He said that there was nothing so vulgar as to praise people to their faces and, himself a gentleman, he could not believe that God was so ungentlemanly as to like it.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Country, Religious, Morning

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

  4 Copy quote

• It is well to remember that grammar is common speech formulated.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Writing, Speech, Common

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

  9 Copy quote

• The world in general doesn't know what to make of originality; it is startled out of its comfortable habits of thought, and its first reaction is one of anger.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Anger, Political, World

  "Ten Novels and Their Authors". Book by W. Somerset Maugham, 1948.

  9 Copy quote

• I am afraid of people with too much charm. They devour you. In the end you are made a sacrifice to the exercise of their fascinating gift and their insincerity.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Exercise, Sacrifice, People

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

  12 Copy quote

• Refecting on the high divorce rate in America as contrasted with England "American women expect to find in their husbands a perfection that English women only hope to find in their butlers

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Husband, Divorce, America

  7 Copy quote

• The mystic sees the ineffable, and the psychopathologist the unspeakable.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Atheism, Ineffable, Mystic

  The Moon and Sixpence Ch. 1

  7 Copy quote

• It must be that there is something naturally absurd in a sincere emotion, though why there should be I cannot imagine, unless it is that man, the ephemeral inhabitant of an insignificant planet, with all his pain and all his striving is but a jest in an eternal mind.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Pain, Men, Mind

  W. Somerset Maugham (2010). “Cakes And Ale”, p.131, Random House

  15 Copy quote

• Excess on occasion is exhilarating. It prevents moderation from acquiring the deadening effect of a habit.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Inspirational, Life, Excess

  W. Somerset Maugham (2010). “The Summing Up”, p.47, Random House

  10 Copy quote

• The great man is too often all of a piece; it is the little man that is a bundle of contradictory elements. He is inexhaustible. You never come to the end of the surprises he has in store for you.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Greatness, Men, Pieces

  13 Copy quote

• I wish I could make you see how much fuller the life I offer you is than anything you have a conception of. I wish I could make you see how exciting the life of the spirit is and how rich in experience. It's illimitable. It's such a happy life. There's only one thing like it, when you're up in a plane by yourself, high, high, and only infinity surrounds you. You're intoxicated by the boundless space.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Happy Life, Space, Wish

  11 Copy quote

• The prestige you acquire by being able to tell your friends that you know famous men proves only that you are yourself of small account.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Men, Able, Reputation

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

  7 Copy quote

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