W. Somerset Maugham Quotes

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• 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”

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• 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.

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• 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

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• 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)

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

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Inspirational, Secret, Life Is

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• 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.

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

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Believe, People, Guarantees

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• Only a mediocre person is always at his best.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Inspirational, Life, Failure

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• 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

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• 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”

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

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Education, Book, Reading

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• 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

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• 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

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• 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”

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• 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

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

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Writing, Real Talk, Story Writers

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

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Love, Men, Happens

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• 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

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• Tolerance is only another name for indifference.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Names, Tolerance, Atheism

  W. Somerset Maugham (2011). “A Writer's Notebook”, p.34, Random House

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• 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

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• I have always been convinced that if a woman once made up her mind to marry a man, nothing but instant flight could save him.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Sex, Men, Mind

  W. Somerset Maugham (2010). “Collected Short Stories”, p.318, Random House

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• 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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• 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.

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• 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

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• There are times when I look over the various parts of my character with perplexity. I recognize that I am made up of several persons and that the person that at the moment has the upper hand will inevitably give place to another. But which is the real one? All of them or none?

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Real, Character, Hands

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