W. Somerset Maugham Quotes

Quotes about:

• Perfection has one grave defect: it is apt to be dull.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Humility, Perfection, Dull

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

  9 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.

  177 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.

  129 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

  147 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”

  167 Copy quote

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

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Inspirational, Secret, Life Is

  119 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)

  126 Copy quote

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

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Believe, People, Guarantees

  66 Copy quote

• Imagination grows by exercise.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Exercise, Imagination, Creative

  "The Summing Up". Book by W. Somerset Maugham, 1938.

  15 Copy quote

• All the words I use in my stories can be found in the dictionary-it's just a matter of arranging them into the right sentences.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Writing, Matter, Story Writers

  17 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

  57 Copy quote

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

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Wisdom, Regret, Life Is

  17 Copy quote

• Any society that values wealth above freedom will lose its freedom, and will ultimately lose its wealth as well

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Politics, Wealth, Wells

  5 Copy quote

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

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Education, Book, Reading

  102 Copy quote

• The well dressed man is he whose clothes you never notice

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Men, Clothes, Well Dressed

  21 Copy quote

• The crown of literature is poetry. It is its end and aim. It is the sublimest activity of the human mind. It is the achievement of beauty and delicacy. The writer of prose can only step aside when the poet passes.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Poetry, Achievement, Mind

  11 Copy quote

• Only a mediocre person is always at his best.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Inspirational, Life, Failure

  22 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

  29 Copy quote

• Simplicity and naturalness are the truest marks of distinction.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Simplicity, Distinction, Mark

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

  15 Copy quote

• 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

• Art is a manifestation of emotion, and emotion speaks a language that all may understand.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Art, May, Emotion

  W. Somerset Maugham (2012). “The Moon and Sixpence”, p.2, Courier Corporation

  29 Copy quote

• I don't think of the past. The only thing that matters is the everlasting present.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Time, Past, Thinking

  W. Somerset Maugham (2012). “The Moon and Sixpence”, p.59, Courier Corporation

  14 Copy quote

• It's no use crying over spilt milk, because all of the forces of the universe were bent on spilling it.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Use, Milk, Cry

  "Of Human Bondage" by W. Somerset Maugham, (Ch. 68), 1915.

  21 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

  17 Copy quote

• From the earliest time the old have rubbed it into the young that they are wiser, and before the young had discovered what nonsense this was they were old too, and it profited them to carry on the imposture.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Generations, Aging, Nonsense

  Cakes and Ale ch. 11 (1930)

  27 Copy quote

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