W. Somerset Maugham Quotes

Quotes about:

• 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.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Change, Enjoy It While It Lasts, Delight

  "The Razor's Edge". Book by W. Somerset Maugham, 1944.

  138 Copy quote

• 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.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Love, Life, Change

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

  142 Copy quote

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

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Life, Book, Reading

  122 Copy quote

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

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Inspirational, Secret, Life Is

  101 Copy quote

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

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Inspirational, Funny, Life

  The Mixture as Before "The Treasure" (1940)

  113 Copy quote

• 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.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Freedom, Patriotic, Libertarian Party

  "Strictly Personal" by W. Somerset Maugham, (ch. 31), 1941.

  108 Copy quote

• The most valuable thing I have learned from life is to regret nothing.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Wisdom, Regret, Life Is

  4 Copy quote

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

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Believe, People, Guarantees

  54 Copy quote

• If you don't change your beliefs, your life will be like this forever. Is that good news?

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Motivational, Change, Believe

  25 Copy quote

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

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Love, Life, Change

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

  66 Copy quote

• 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

  Humble, Ignorance, Fate

  W. Somerset Maugham (2013). “The Essential W. Somerset Maugham Collection”, p.1377, eBookIt.com

  46 Copy quote

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

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Freedom, Things In Life, Two

  W. Somerset Maugham (2016). “Of Human Bondage (Diversion Classics)”, p.130, Diversion Books

  31 Copy quote

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

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Education, Book, Reading

  90 Copy quote

• Throw yourself into the hurly-burly of life. It doesn't matter how many mistakes you make, what unhappiness you have to undergo. It is all your material ... Don't wait for experience to come to you; go out after experience. Experience is your material.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Mistake, Waiting, Matter

  26 Copy quote

• What makes old age hard to bear is not the failing of one's faculties, mental and physical, but the burden of one's memories.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Time, Memories, Age

  Points of View Ch. 1

  11 Copy quote

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

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Powerful, Writing, Creativity

  "The Summing Up" by W. Somerset Maugham, Doubleday, Doran & Co., (p. 164), 1938.

  80 Copy quote

• 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.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Fashion, Beach, Lying

  W. Somerset Maugham (2013). “The Essential W. Somerset Maugham Collection”, p.1312, eBookIt.com

  58 Copy quote

• Money is like a sixth sense without which you cannot make a complete use of the other five.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Inspirational, Life, Happiness

  Of Human Bondage (1915) ch. 51

  24 Copy quote

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

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Life, Cute, Chance

  37 Copy quote

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

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Writing, Real Talk, Story Writers

  35 Copy quote

• 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.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Life, Friendship, Time

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

  34 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

  3 Copy quote

• An unfortunate thing about this world is that the good habits are much easier to give up than the bad ones.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Giving Up, Unfortunate Things, World

  12 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

  8 Copy quote

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

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Children, Humble, Humility

  48 Copy quote

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