W. Somerset Maugham Quotes - Page 12

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• You Europeans know nothing about America. Because we amass large fortunes you think we care for nothing but money. We are nothing for it; the moment we have it we spend it, sometimes well, sometimes ill, but we spend it. Money is nothing to us; it's merely the symbol of success. We are the greatest idealists in the world; I happen to think that we've set our ideal on the wrong objects; I happen to think that the greatest ideal man can set before himself is self-perfection.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Men, Thinking, America

  4 Copy quote

• The great trues are too important to be new.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Important

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• As we grow older we become more conscious of the complexity, incoherence, and unreasonableness of human beings; this indeed is the only excuse that offers for the middle-aged or elderly writer whose thoughts should more properly be turned to graver matters, occupying himself with the trivial concerns of imaginary people.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Real, Men, Occupy Yourself

  "Cakes And Ale".

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• The crown of literature is poetry.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Hygiene, Poetry, Crowns

  W. Somerset Maugham (2010). “Cakes And Ale”, p.90, Random House

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• The great American novel has not only already been written, it has already been rejected.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Funny, Book, Reading

  57 Copy quote

• I would sooner read a time-table or a catalogue than nothing at all. They are much more entertaining than half the novels that are written.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Half, Tables, Novel

  Summing Up (1938) p. 92

  64 Copy quote

• Marriage is a very good thing, but I think it's a mistake to make a habit out of it.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Mistake, Thinking, Funny Marriage

  "The Mixture as Before". Book by W. Somerset Maugham, 1940.

  6 Copy quote

• It's very hard to be a gentleman and a writer.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Writing, Gentleman, Comeback

  W. Somerset Maugham (1930). “Cakes and Ale”

  10 Copy quote

• In the country the darkness of night is friendly and familiar, but in a city, with its blaze of lights, it is unnatural, hostile and menacing. It is like a monstrous vulture that hovers, biding its time.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Country, Night, Light

  "A Writer's Notebook" by W. Somerset Maugham, Country Life Press, (p. 48), 1949.

  34 Copy quote

• Love is not always blind and there are few things that cause greater wretchedness than to love with all your heart someone who you know is unworthy of love.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Love, Heart, Who You Know

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

  4 Copy quote

• It has been said that good prose should resemble the conversation of a well-bred man.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Writing, Men, Should

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

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• You know, the Philistines have long since discarded the rack and stake as a means of suppressing the opinions they feared: they've discovered a much more deadly weapon of destruction -- the wisecrack.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Mean, Long, Razors

  W. Somerset Maugham (2008). “The Razor's Edge”, p.305, Random House

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• The average American can get into the kingdom of heaven much more easily than he can get into the Boulevard St. Germain.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Fashion, Average, Heaven

  W. Somerset Maugham (2008). “The Razor's Edge”, p.43, Random House

  7 Copy quote

• Reverie is the groundwork of creative imagination; it is the privilege of the artist that with him it is not as with other men an escape from reality, but the means by which he accedes to it.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Mean, Reality, Men

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

  10 Copy quote

• Our natural egoism leads us to judge people by their relations to ourselves. We want them to be certain things to us, and for us that is what they are; because the rest of them is no good to us, we ignore it.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  People, Judging, Want

  W. Somerset Maugham (2010). “The Summing Up”, p.69, Random House

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• The author always loads his dice, but he must never let the reader see that he has done so, and by the manipulation of his plot, he can engage the reader's attention so that he does not perceive the violence that has been done to him.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Doe, Plot, Attention

  4 Copy quote

• I have an idea that the only thing which makes it possible to regard this world we live in without disgust is the beauty which now and then men create out of the chaos.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Men, Ideas, World

  6 Copy quote

• I'm only twenty-five. If I've made a mistake I have time to correct it.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Mistake, Twenties, Made

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• We find things beautiful because we recognize them and contrariwise we find things beautiful because their novelty surprises us.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Beauty, Beautiful, Novelty

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

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• The Americans, who are the most efficient people on the earth, have carried [phrase-making] to such a height of perfection and have invented so wide a range of pithy and hackneyed phrases that they can carry on an amusing and animated conversation without giving a moment’s reflection to what they are saying and so leave their minds free to consider the more important matters of big business and fornication.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Funny, Reflection, People

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• Heaven knows what pains the author has been at, what bitter experience he has endured and what heartache suffered, to give some chance reader a few hours' relaxation or to while away the tedium of a journey.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Pain, Writing, Journey

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

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• I do not believe they are right who say that the defects of famous men should be ignored. I think it is better that we should know them. Then, though we are conscious of having faults as glaring as theirs, we can believe that that is no hindrance to our achieving also something of their virtues.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Inspirational, Life, Believe

  W. Somerset Maugham (2010). “The Summing Up”, p.70, Random House

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• No man in his heart is quite so cynical as a well-bred woman.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Heart, Men, Cynical

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• It is astonishing how many books I find there is no need for me to read at all.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Book, Needs, Astonishing

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• It was such a lovely day I thought it a pity to get up.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Lovely, Self Pity, Get Up

  64 Copy quote

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