W. Somerset Maugham Quotes

Quotes about:

• 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”

  137 Copy quote

• 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.

  130 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

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

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Believe, People, Guarantees

  53 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

• 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

  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”

  60 Copy quote

• Only a mediocre person is always at his best.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Inspirational, Life, Failure

  14 Copy quote

• The essential element of love is a belief in its own eternity.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Love Is, Elements, Essentials

  W. Somerset Maugham (2013). “The Essential W. Somerset Maugham Collection”, p.2527, eBookIt.com

  6 Copy quote

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

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Education, Book, Reading

  89 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

• 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.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Beauty, Morning, Silly

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

  34 Copy quote

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

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Love, Life, Heartbreak

  "A Writer's Notebook" by W. Somerset Maugham, Country Life Press, (p. 13), 1949.

  34 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

  34 Copy quote

• She loved three things — a joke, a glass of wine, and a handsome man.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Wine, Men, Glasses

  W. Somerset Maugham (2012). “The Moon and Sixpence”, p.134, Courier Corporation

  12 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

  47 Copy quote

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

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Soul, World, Finding Peace

  W. Somerset Maugham (2009). “The Painted Veil”, p.119, Random House

  53 Copy quote

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

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Love, Men, Happens

  25 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.

  77 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

  30 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

  57 Copy quote

• Sometimes people carry to such perfection the mask they have assumed that in due course they actually become the person they seem.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  People, Perfection, Sometimes

  W. Somerset Maugham (2013). “The Essential W. Somerset Maugham Collection”, p.1397, eBookIt.com

  19 Copy quote

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