W. Somerset Maugham Quotes - Page 10

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• The writer of prose can only step aside when the poet passes...

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Steps, Poet, Prose

  "Cakes and Ale: Or, The Skeleton in the Cupboard" by W. Somerset Maugham, (p. 184), 1930.

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• To bear failure with courage is the best proof of character that anyone can give... You will find that people forget the failures of others very quickly.... My last piece of advice is not to let anyone see your mortification, but whatever you fancy people are saying about you to go on with your ordinary life as though nothing unpleasant had happened to you.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Failure, Character, People

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• I've always been interested in people, but I've never liked them.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Funny, People, Literature

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• What was it in the human heart that made you despise a man because he loved you?

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Heart, Men, Made

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• Perfect is determined in shortened measures of time, not over long periods of time or lifetimes. It would be unnatural.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Long, Perfect, Would Be

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• A man filled with meat turns his back on the dry bones of political doctrine. Fanatical devotion to the ruling party comes more readily from the materially deprived At a dinner party one should eat wisely but not too well, and talk well but not too wisely.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Party, Men, Dry Bones

  1896 A Writer's Notebook (published1949).

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• When a man's in love, he at once makes a pedestal of the Ten Commandments and stands on the top of them with his arms akimbo. When a woman's in love she doesn't care two straws for Thou Shalt and Thou Shalt Not.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Men, Two, Pedestal

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• I am sick of this way of life. The weariness and sadness of old age make it intolerable. I have walked with death in hand, and death's own hand is warmer than my own. I don't wish to live any longer.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Sadness, Hands, Sick

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• But what is criticism? Criticism is purely destructive; anyone can destroy, but not everyone can build up.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Criticism, Destructive

  W. Somerset Maugham (2011). “Of Human Bondage (人性枷鎖)”, p.390, Hyweb Technology Co. Ltd.

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• Few misfortunes can befall a boy which bring worse consequence than to have a really affectionate mother.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Funny, Mother, Boys

  Writer's Notebook (1949) p. 27 (written in 1896)

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• Evil is a necessary part of the order of the universe.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Order, Evil, Summing Up

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

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• I've met so many people, often the scum of the earth, and found them, you know, quite decent. I am an uncomfortable stranger to moral indignation.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Scum Of The Earth, People, Moral

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• Writing is the supreme solace.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Writing, Solace, Supreme

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• There is no cruelty greater than a woman's to a man who loves her and whom she does not love; she has no kindness then, no tolerance even, she has only an insane irritation.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Kindness, Men, Irritation

  W. Somerset Maugham (2012). “The Moon and Sixpence”, p.85, Courier Corporation

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• No one can write a best seller by trying to. He must write with complete sincerity; the clichés that make you laugh, the hackneyed characters, the well-worn situations, the commonplace story that excites your derision, seem neither hackneyed, well worn nor commonplace to him. ... The conclusion is obvious: you cannot write anything that will convince unless you are yourself convinced. The best seller sells because he writes with his heart's blood.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Writing, Heart, Character

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• When people say they do not care what others think of them, for the most part they deceive themselves. Generally they mean only that they will do as they choose, in the confidence that no one will know their vagaries; and at the utmost only that they are willing to act contrary to the opinion of the majority because they are supported by the approval of their neighbours. It is not difficult to be unconventional in the eyes of the world when your unconventionality is but the convention of your set.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Mean, Eye, Thinking

  The Moon and Sixpence ch. 14 (1919)

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• I write only when inspiration strikes. Fortunately it strikes every morning at nine o'clock sharp.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Morning, Inspiration, Writing

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• The moral I draw is that the writer should seek his reward in the pleasure of his work and in release from the burden of thought; and, indifferent to aught else, care nothing for praise or censure, failure or success.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Care, Rewards, Moral

  W. Somerset Maugham (2012). “The Moon and Sixpence”, p.6, Courier Corporation

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• When I read a book I seem to read it with my eyes only, but now and then I come across a passage, perhaps only a phrase, which has a meaning for me, and it becomes part of me.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Book, Reading, Eye

  W. Somerset Maugham (2016). “Of Human Bondage (Diversion Classics)”, p.446, Diversion Books

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• But the only important thing in a book is the meaning it has for you; it may have other and much more profound meanings for the critic, but at second-hand they can be of small service to you.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Book, Hands, Profound

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• Beauty is also a Gift of God, one of the most rare and precious, and we should be thankful if we are happy enough to possess it and thankful, if we are not, that others possess it for our pleasure.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Being Thankful, Enough, Pleasure

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• Insensibly he formed the most delightful habit in the world, the habit of reading: he did not know that thus he was providing himself with a refuge from all the distress of life; he did not know either that he was creating for himself an unreal world which would make the real world of every day a source of bitter disappointment.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Disappointment, Real, Reading

  W. Somerset Maugham (2016). “Of Human Bondage (Diversion Classics)”, p.45, Diversion Books

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• Make him laugh and he will think you a trivial fellow, but bore him in the right way and your reputation is assured.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Book, Reading, Thinking

  W. Somerset Maugham (1941). “the Gentleman in the Parlour”

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• I prefer a loose woman to a selfish one and a wanton to a fool.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Selfish, Fool, Loose Women

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• Art, if it is to be reckoned as one of the great values of life, must teach man humility, tolerance, wisdom and magnanimity. The value of art is not beauty, but right action.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Art, Humility, Men

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

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