W. Somerset Maugham Quotes & Sayings

I always found Dickens very coarse. I don't want to read about people who drop their aitches. — W. Somerset Maugham

It must be a fault in me that I am not gravely shocked at the sins of others unless they personally affect me. — W. Somerset Maugham

Evil can be condoned only if in the beyond it is compensated by good and god himself needs immortality to vindicate his ways to man. — W. Somerset Maugham

If I cried just now in church it wasn't for the reason that you thought. I've cried enough for that, heaven knows, but just then it was for something different. I felt so lonely. All those people, they have a country, and in that country, homes; to-morrow they'll spend Christmas Day together, father and mother and children; some of them, like you, went only to hear the music, and some have no faith, but just then, all of them, they were joined together by a common feeling; that ceremony, which they've known all their lives, and whose meaning is in their blood, every word spoken, every action of the priests, is familiar to them, and even if they don't believe with their minds, the awe, the mystery, is in their bones and they believe with their hearts; it is part of the recollections of their childhood, the gardens they played in, the countryside, the streets of the towns. It binds them together, it makes them one, and some deep instinct tells them that they belong to one another. — W. Somerset Maugham

Art is a manifestation of emotion, and emotion speaks a language that all may understand. — W. Somerset Maugham

Freedom! That was the thought that sung in her heart so that even though the future was so dim, it was iridescent like the mist over the river where the morning sun fell upon it. Freedom! Not only freedom from a bond that irked, and a companionship which depressed her; freedom, not only from the death which had threatened, but freedom from the love that had degraded her; freedom from all spiritual ties, the freedom of a disembodied spirit, and with freedom, courage , and a valiant unconcern for whatever was to come. — W. Somerset Maugham

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

In the sweat of thy brow shalt thou earn thy daily bread: it was not a curse upon mankind, but the balm which reconciled it to existence. — W. Somerset Maugham

She gathered herself together. No one could describe the scorn of her expression or the contemptuous hatred she put into her answer.
You men! You filthy dirty pigs! You're all the same, all of you. Pigs! Pigs! — W. Somerset Maugham

It is not true that suffering ennobles the character; happiness does that sometimes, but suffering, for the most part, makes men petty and vindictive. — W. Somerset Maugham

Flaubert prided himself on his frankness; it was indeed brutal. — W. Somerset Maugham

Sometimes I think that when we say our honour prevents us from doing this or
that we deceive ourselves, and our real motive is vanity. — W. Somerset Maugham

There is no explanation for evil. It must be looked upon as a necessary part of the order of the universe. To ignore it is childish, to bewail it senseless. — W. Somerset Maugham

One of the falsest of proverbs is that you must lie on the bed that you have made. The experience of life shows that people are constantly doing things which must lead to disaster, and yet by come chance manage to evade the result of their folly. — W. Somerset Maugham

No man in his heart is quite so cynical as a well-bred woman. — W. Somerset Maugham

My own belief is that there is hardly anyone whose sexual life, if it were broadcast, would not fill the world at large with surprise and horror. — W. Somerset Maugham

Beauty is also a Gift of God, one of the most rare and precious, and we should be thankful if we are happy enough to possess it and thankful, if we are not, that others possess it for our pleasure. — W. Somerset Maugham

It was one of the queer things of life that you saw a person every day for months and were so intimate with him that you could not imagine existence without him; then separation came, and everything went on in the same way, and the companion who had seemed essential proved unnecessary. — W. Somerset Maugham

I happen to think we've set our ideal on the wrong objects; I happen to think that the greatest ideal man can set before himself is self-perfection. — W. Somerset Maugham

It came upon me little by little. I came to like the life here, with its ease and its leisure, and the people, with their good-nature and their happy smiling faces. I began to think. I'd never had time to do that before. I began to read."
"You always read."
"I read for examinations. I read in order to be able to hold my own in conversation. I read for instruction. Here I learned to read for pleasure. I learned to talk. Do you know that conversation is one of the greatest pleasures in life? But it wants leisure. I'd always been too busy before. And gradually all the life that had seemed so important to me began to seem rather trivial and vulgar. What is the use of all this hustle and this constant striving? — W. Somerset Maugham

Remember that it is nothing to do your duty, that is demanded of you and is no more meritorious than to wash your hands when they are dirty; the only thing that counts is the love of duty; when love and duty are one, then grace is in you and you will enjoy a happiness which passes all understanding. — W. Somerset Maugham

The love that lasts the longest is the love that is never returned — W. Somerset Maugham

The world is hard and cruel. We are here none knows why, and we go none knows whither. We must be very humble. We must see the beauty of quietness. We must go through life so inconspicuously that Fate does not notice us. And let us seek the love of simple, ignorant people. Their ignorance is better than all our knowledge. Let us be silent, content in our little corner, meek and gentle like them. That is the wisdom of life. — W. Somerset Maugham

There is no more merit in having read a thousand books than in having ploughed a thousand fields. — W. Somerset Maugham

Though I said that affection was the greatest enemy of love, I would never deny that it's a very good substitute. I'm not sure that a marriage founded on it isn't the happiest.
[The book-bag] — W. Somerset Maugham

The subjunctive mood is in its death throes, and the best thing to do is to put it out of its misery as soon as possible. — W. Somerset Maugham

I do not attach
any exaggerated importance to my poetical works. Life is
there to be lived rather than to be written about. My aim
is to search out the manifold experience that it offers,
wringing from each moment what of emotion it presents.
I look upon my writing as a graceful accomplishment
which does not absorb but rather adds pleasure to
existence. And as for posterity - damn posterity. — W. Somerset Maugham

And you dared to go counter to your father's wishes? They should have been a command to you. Give me one reason, only one, why, flinging decency to the winds, you demeaned yourself by becoming a baker.'
'Hunger. — W. Somerset Maugham

Mrs. MacAndrew shared the common opinion of her sex that a man is always a brute to leave a woman who is attached to him, but that a woman is much to blame if he does. — W. Somerset Maugham

In the country the darkness of night is friendly and familiar, but in a city, with its blaze of lights, it is unnatural, hostile and menacing. It is like a monstrous vulture that hovers, biding its time. — W. Somerset Maugham

To bear failure with courage is the best proof of character that anyone can give. — W. Somerset Maugham

We have long passed the Victorian Era when asterisks were followed after a certain interval by a baby. — W. Somerset Maugham

Foolish when we ask anything to last, but surely we're still more foolish not to take delight in it while we have it. — W. Somerset Maugham

She had learnt long ago that common sense, intelligence, good-nature, and strength of character were unimportant in comparison with a pretty face. — W. Somerset Maugham

Its a toss-up when you decide to leave the beaten track. Many are called, few are chosen. — W. Somerset Maugham

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

And thinking over the long pilgrimage of his past he accepted it joyfully. He accepted the deformity which had made life so hard for him; he knew that it had warped his character, but now he saw also that by reason of it he had acquired that power of introspection which had given him so much delight. Without it he would never have had his keen appreciation of beauty, his passion for art and literature, and his interest in the varied spectacle of life. The ridicule and the contempt which had so often been heaped upon him had turned his mind inward and called forth those flowers which he felt would never lose their fragrance. — W. Somerset Maugham

You've been brought up like a gentleman and a Christian, and I should be false to the trust laid upon me by your dead father and mother if I allowed you to expose yourself to such temptation.'
Well, I know I'm not a Christian and I'm beginning to doubt whether I'm a gentleman,' said Philip. — W. Somerset Maugham

The life force is vigorous. The delight that accompanies it counter-balances all the pains and hardships that confront men. It makes life worth living. — W. Somerset Maugham

Never pause unless you have a reason for it, but when you pause, pause as long as you can. — W. Somerset Maugham

Simplicity and naturalness are the truest marks of distinction. — W. Somerset Maugham

I was a stray acquaintance whom he had never seem before and would never see again, a wandered for a moment through his monotonous life, and some starved impulse left him to lay bare his soul. I have in this way learned more about men in a night than I could if I had known them for 10 years. If you are interested in human nature, it is one of the greatest pleasures of travel. — W. Somerset Maugham

It's a long, arduous road he's starting to travel, but it may be that at the end of it he'll find what's he's seeking. — W. Somerset Maugham

I HAVE NEVER BEGUN a novel with more misgiving. If I call it a novel it is only because I don't know what else to call it. — W. Somerset Maugham

I wish to deal only with the masterpieces which the consensus of opinion for a long time has accepted as supreme. We are all supposed to have read them; it is a pity that so few of us have. — W. Somerset Maugham

I should have known that I wasn't meant for happiness and a life of ease. I have other work to do in the world. — W. Somerset Maugham

As we grow older we become more conscious of the complexity, incoherence, and unreasonableness of human beings; this indeed is the only excuse that offers for the middle-aged or elderly writer, whose thoughts should more properly be turned to graver matters, occupying himself with the trivial concerns of imaginary people. For if the proper study of mankind is man it is evidently more sensible to occupy yourself with the coherent, substantial, and significant creatures of fiction than with the irrational and shadowy figures of real life. — W. Somerset Maugham

It is not very comfortable to have the gift of being amused at one's own absurdity. LXXX — W. Somerset Maugham

It may be that I lead the life I've planned for myself it may affect others; the effect may be no greater than the ripple caused by a stone thrown in a pond, but one ripple causes another and that one a third; it's just possible that a few people will see that my way of life offers happiness and peace, and that they in their turn will teach what they have learned to others. — W. Somerset Maugham

It is well known that to praise someone whose rivalry you do not dread is often a very good way of putting a spoke in the wheel of someone whose rivalry you do. — W. Somerset Maugham

Conversion may come under many shapes, and it may be brought about in many ways. With some men it needs a cataclysm, as a stone may be broken to fragments by the fury of a torrent; but with some it comes gradually, as a stone may be worn away by the ceaseless fall of a drop of water. — W. Somerset Maugham

The ideal has many names and beauty is but one of them. — W. Somerset Maugham

As lovers, the difference between men and women is that women can love all day long, but men only at times. — W. Somerset Maugham

I forgive them because they're human and weak. The longer I live, the more I am overwhelmed by the utter, utter weakness of men; they do try to do their duty, they do their best honestly, they seek straight ways, but they're dreadfully weak. And so I think one ought to be sorry for them and make all possible allowances. — W. Somerset Maugham

You know, the Philistines have long since discarded the rack and stake as a means of suppressing the opinions they feared: they've discovered a much more deadly weapon of destruction
the wisecrack. — W. Somerset Maugham

Usage is the only test. I prefer a phrase that is easy and unaffected to a phrase that is grammatical. — W. Somerset Maugham

Art is triumphant when it can use convention as an instrument of its own purpose. — W. Somerset Maugham

In religion above all things the only thing of use is an objective truth. The only God that is of use is a being who is personal, supreme and good, and whose existence is as certain as that two and two make four. — W. Somerset Maugham

I always find it more difficult to say the things I mean than the things I don't. — W. Somerset Maugham

One could reconcile oneself to existence only because it was meaningless. It — W. Somerset Maugham

No pain in love is so hard to bear as that which comes from the impossibility of doing any service from the well-beloved, and no service is so repulsive that love cannot make it delightful and easy. — W. Somerset Maugham

Because women can do nothing except love, they've given it a ridiculous importance. They want to persuade us that it's the whole of life. It's an insignificant part. — W. Somerset Maugham

There was once a professor of law who said to his students. When you are fighting a case, if you have facts on your side hammer them into the jury, and if you have the law on your side hammer it into the judge. But if you have neither the facts nor the law, asked one of his listeners? Then hammer the hell into the table, answered the professor. — W. Somerset Maugham

Follow your inclinations with due regard to the policeman round the corner. — W. Somerset Maugham

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

Milk is very nice, especially with a drop of brandy in it, but the domestic cow is only too glad to be rid of it. A swollen udder is very uncomfortable — W. Somerset Maugham

I don't know why it is that the religious never ascribe common sense to God. — W. Somerset Maugham

Dullness is the first requisite of a good husband. — W. Somerset Maugham

Genius is an infinite capacity for taking pains. The — W. Somerset Maugham

I don't understand anything. Life is so strange. I feel like some one who's lived all his life by a duck-pond and suddenly is shown the sea. It makes me a little breathless, and yet it fills me with elation. I don't want to die, I want to live. I'm beginning to feel a new courage. I feel like one of those old sailors who set sail for undiscovered seas and I think my soul hankers for the unknown. — W. Somerset Maugham

He had been taught by his uncle that his prayers were more acceptable to God if he said them in his nightshirt than if he waited till he was dressed. This did not surprise him, for he was beginning to realize that he was the creature of a God who appreciated the discomfort of his worshipers. — W. Somerset Maugham

The humour of Dostoievsky is the humour of a barloafer who ties a kettle to a dog's tail. — W. Somerset Maugham

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

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

Like many another member of the gentle sex, she seems to have been ready enough to accept the perquisites of her position, but saw no reason why she should be asked to give anything in return. — W. Somerset Maugham

The most valuable thing I have learned from life is to regret nothing. — W. Somerset Maugham

To achieve great success in literature you must have a certain coarseness in your composition... Really to move and influence men you must have complete understanding, and you can only get that if you have in you something of the common clay of humanity. — W. Somerset Maugham

To Lucy it was an admirable study, the contrast between the man who threw his whole soul into a certain aim, which he pursued with a savage intensity, knowing that the end was a dreadful, lonely death; and the man who was making up his mind deliberately to gather what was beautiful in life, and to cultivate its graces as though it were a flower garden.
"And the worst of it is that it will all be the same in a hundred years," said Dick. "We shall both be forgotten long before then, you with your strenuousness, and I with my folly."
"And what conclusion do you draw from that?" asked Mrs. Crowley.
"Only that the psychological moment has arrived for a whisky and soda. — W. Somerset Maugham

The food doesn't matter. No, up here, in the room. It's so wonderful to shut out the world for a few hours. Rest, peace, silence, solitude. You would think they were luxuries that only the very rich can afford, and yet they cost nothing. Strange that they should be so hard to come by. — W. Somerset Maugham

I wanted to live again and again. I was willing to accept every sort of life, no matter what its pain and sorrow; I felt that only life after life, life after life could satisfy my eagerness, my vigour, and my curiosity. — W. Somerset Maugham

Some of us look for the Way in opium and some in God, some of us in whiskey and some in love. It is all the same Way and it leads nowhither. — W. Somerset Maugham

According to your proclivities, you may take a snow-clad Alpine peak, as it rises to the empyrean in radiant majesty, as symbol of man's aspiration to union with the Infinite; or since, if you like to believe that, a mountain range may be thrown up by some violent convulsion in the earth's depths, you may take it as a symbol of the dark and sinister passions of man that lour to destroy him; or, if you want to be in the fashion, you may take it as a phallic symbol. — W. Somerset Maugham

There is no need for the writer to eat a whole sheep to be able to tell you what mutton tastes like. It is enough if he eats a cutlet. But he should do that. — W. Somerset Maugham

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

I myself stand on one side and the rest of the world on the other. There is an abyss between, that no power can cross, a strange barrier more insuperable than a mountain of fire. Husband and wife know nothing of one another. However ardent their passion, however intimate their union, they are never one; they are scarcely more to one another than strangers. — W. Somerset Maugham

I did not hesitate to put the question that came to the tip of my tongue. After all, if you want to know something the best way is to ask. — W. Somerset Maugham

Life's hell anyway, but if there is any fun to be got out of it, you're only a god-damn fool if you don't get it. — W. Somerset Maugham

He loved not only her beauty, but that dim soul which he divined behind her suffering eyes. He would intoxicate her with his passion. In the end he would make her forget. — W. Somerset Maugham

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

From old habit, unconsciously he thanked God that he no longer believed in Him. — W. Somerset Maugham

You can do anything in this world if you are prepared to take the consequences. — W. Somerset Maugham

A man ought to work. That's what he's here for. That's how he contributes to the welfare of the community. — W. Somerset Maugham

He was so pleasant that his fellow writers, his rivals and contemporaries, forgave him even the fact that he was a gentleman. — W. Somerset Maugham

Whenever he started a book with two solitary travellers riding along the brink of a desperate ravine he knew he was safe. The — W. Somerset Maugham

Luxury is dangerous to people who have never known it and to whom its temptations are held out too suddenly. [ ... ] Just as the advantage of culture is that it enables you to talk nonsense with distinction, so the habit of luxury allows you to regard its frills and furbelows with a proper contumely.
[Giulia Lazzari] — W. Somerset Maugham

For men and women are not only themselves; they are also the region in which they are born, the city apartment or farm in which they learnt to walk, the games they played as children, the old wives tales they overheard, the food they ate, the schools they attended, the sports they followed, the poets they read, and the God they believed in. It is all these things that have made them what they are, and these are the things that you can't come to know by hearsay ... — W. Somerset Maugham

The artist, painter, poet, or musician, by his decoration, sublime or beautiful, satisfies the aesthetic sense; but that is akin to the sexual instinct, and shares its barbarity: he lays before you also the greater gift of himself. — W. Somerset Maugham

They're a funny lot, suicides. I remember one man who couldn't get any work to do and his wife died, so he pawned his clothes and bought a revolver; but he made a mess of it, he only shot out an eye and he got alright. And then, if you please, with an eye gone and a piece of his face blown away, he came to the conclusion that the world wasn't such a bad place after all, and he lived happily ever afterwards. Thing I've always noticed, people don't commit suicide for love, as you'd expect, that's just a fancy of novelists; they commit suicide because they haven't got any money. I wonder why that is."
"I suppose money's more important than love," suggest Philip. — W. Somerset Maugham

Tolerance is another word for indifference. — W. Somerset Maugham

The audience is a very curious animal. It is shrewd rather than intelligent. Its mental capacity is less than that of its most intellectual members. — W. Somerset Maugham