W. Somerset Maugham Quotes

Nothing in the world is permanent, and we’re foolish when we ask anything to last, but surely we’re still more foolish not to take delight in it while we have it.

We are not the same persons this year as last; nor are those we love. It is a happy chance if we, changing, continue to love a changed person.

To acquire the habit of reading is to construct for yourself a refuge from almost all the miseries of life.

It's a funny thing about life; if you refuse to accept anything but the best, you very often get it.

If a nation values anything more than freedom, it will lose its freedom; and the irony of it is that if it is comfort or money that it values more, it will lose that too.

The secret to life is meaningless unless you discover it yourself.

The only important thing in a book is the meaning that it has for you.

It is dangerous to let the public behind the scenes. They are easily disillusioned and then they are angry with you, for it was the illusion they loved.

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.

Imagination grows by exercise, and contrary to common belief, is more powerful in the mature than in the young.

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

There are few things so pleasant as a picnic eaten in perfect comfort.

The great tragedy of life is not that men perish, but that they cease to love.

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

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

In Hollywood, the women are all peaches. It makes one long for an apple occasionally.

I would sooner read a time-table or a catalogue than nothing at all. They are much more entertaining than half the novels that are written.

It was such a lovely day I thought it a pity to get up.

Why should you think that beauty, which is the most precious thing in the world, lies like a stone on the beach for the careless passer-by to pick up idly? Beauty is something wonderful and strange that the artist fashions out of the chaos of the world in the torment of his soul. And when he has made it, it is not given to all to know it. To recognize it you must repeat the adventure of the artist. It is a melody that he sings to you, and to hear it again in your own heart you want knowledge and sensitiveness and imagination.

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

The fact that a great many people believe something is no guarantee of its truth.

One cannot find peace in work or in pleasure, in the world or in a convent, but only in one's soul.

The essence of the beautiful is unity in variety.

There's always one who loves and one who lets himself be loved.

The great American novel has not only already been written, it has already been rejected.

It wasn't until late in life that I discovered how easy it is to say, 'I don't know.'

I would sooner read a timetable or a catalog than nothing at all.

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.

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

Illusions are like umbrellas - you no sooner get them than you lose them, and the loss always leaves a little painful wound.

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.

The love that lasts longest is the love that is never returned.

The crown of literature is poetry.

Life is so largely controlled by chance that its conduct can be but a perpetual improvisation.

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

It is not wealth one asks for, but just enough to preserve one's dignity, to work unhampered, to be generous, frank and independent.

There are three rules for writing a novel. Unfortunately, no one knows what they are.

When I read a book I seem to read it with my eyes only, but now and then I come across a passage, perhaps only a phrase, which has a meaning for me, and it becomes part of me.

The complete life, the perfect pattern, includes old age as well as youth and maturity. The beauty of the morning and the radiance of noon are good, but it would be a very silly person who drew the curtains and turned on the light in order to shut out the tranquillity of the evening. Old age has its pleasures, which, though different, are not less than the pleasures of youth.

It's no good trying to keep up old friendships. It's painful for both sides. The fact is, one grows out of people, and the only thing is to face it.

Art for art's sake makes no more sense than gin for gin's sake.

There are two good things in life - freedom of thought and freedom of action.

When you choose your friends, don't be short-changed by choosing personality over character.

The most useful thing about a principle is that it can always be sacrificed to expediency.

If you can tell stories, create characters, devise incidents, and have sincerity and passion, it doesn't matter a damn how you write.

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.

A good Havana is one of the best pleasures that I know.

Sometimes a man hits upon a place to which he mysteriously feels that he belongs.

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.

Love is what happens to men and women who don't know each other.