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.

  131 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”

  138 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

  120 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

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

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Inspirational, Secret, Life Is

  101 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

  54 Copy quote

• Only a mediocre person is always at his best.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Inspirational, Life, Failure

  14 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

• 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”

  62 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

• 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 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.

  35 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 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 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

• 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

• 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

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

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Love, Men, Happens

  25 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

• 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

• The essence of the beautiful is unity in variety.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Beautiful, Wise, Wisdom

  52 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.

  79 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

• I always find it more difficult to say the things I mean than the things I don't.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Mean, Difficult

  W. Somerset Maugham (2009). “The Painted Veil”, p.32, Random House

  47 Copy quote

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