W. Somerset Maugham Quotes - Page 4

Quotes about:

• The passing moment is all we can be sure of; it is only common sense to extract its utmost value from it.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Life, Passing Moments, Common Sense

  W. Somerset Maugham (2010). “The Summing Up”, p.50, Random House

  7 Copy quote

• A good style should show no signs of effort. What is written should seem a happy accident.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Writing, Effort, Style

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

  14 Copy quote

• Unfortunately sometimes one can't do what one thinks is right without making someone else unhappy.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Thinking, Unhappy, Sometimes

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

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Principles, Useful Things, Expediency

  Circle (1921) act 3

  35 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

• 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

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• If forty million people say a foolish thing it does not become a wise one.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Wise, People, Atheism

  W. Somerset Maugham (2011). “A Writer's Notebook”, p.61, Random House

  16 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

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• A man who is a politician at forty is a statesman at three score and ten. It is at this age, when he would be too old to be a clerk or a gardener or a police-court magistrate, that he is ripe to govern a country.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Country, Men, Police

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

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• I made up my mind long ago that life was too short to do anything for myself that I could pay others to do for me.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Work, Life Is Short, Long Ago

  "A Writer's Notebook (1941)". Book by W. Somerset Maugham, 1946.

  19 Copy quote

• To bear failure with courage is the best proof of character that anyone can give.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Courage, Failure, Inspiration

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• A God that can be understood is no God. Who can explain the Infinite in words?

  W. Somerset Maugham

  God, Infinite, Understood

  7 Copy quote

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

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Love, Life, Human Bondage

  Of Human Bondage ch. 71 (1915)

  58 Copy quote

• Each one of us is alone in the world. He is shut in a tower of brass, and can communicate with his fellows only by signs, and the signs have no common value, so that their sense is vague and uncertain. We seek pitifully to convey to others the treasures of our heart, but they have not the power to accept them, and so we go lonely, side by side but not together, unable to know our fellows and unknown by them.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Lonely, Heart, Together

  W. Somerset Maugham (2006). “The Moon and Sixpence”, p.113, Courier Corporation

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• 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

  Fighting, Your Side, Law

  W. Somerset Maugham (2011). “A Writer's Notebook”, p.131, Random House

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• Most people are such fools that it is really no great compliment to say that someone is above the average.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Work, Average, People

  8 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

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• A mother only does her children harm if she makes them the only concern of her life.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Mother, Children, Doe

  W. Somerset Maugham (2008). “The Razor's Edge”, p.175, Random House

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• Now it is a funny thing about life. If you refuse to accept anything but the best, you very often get it. If you utterly decline to make do with what you can get, then somehow or other, you are very likely to get what you want.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Determination, Funny Things, Want

  The Mixture as Before "The Treasure" (1940)

  29 Copy quote

• You know, there are two good things in life, freedom of thought and freedom of action. In France you get freedom of action: you can do what you like and nobody bothers, but you must think like everybody else. In Germany you must do what everybody else does, but you may think as you choose. They're both very good things. I personally prefer freedom of thought. But in England you get neither: you're ground down by convention. You can't think as you like and you can't act as you like. That's because it's a democratic nation. I expect America's worse.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Thinking, Things In Life, Two

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• I can imagine no more comfortable frame of mind for the conduct of life than a humorous resignation.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Funny, Life, Happiness

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• Often the best way to overcome desire is to satisfy it.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Temptation, Desire, Way

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• First, cut out all the wisdom, then cut out all the adjectives.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Cutting, Adjectives, Firsts

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• 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”

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• 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”

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