W. Somerset Maugham Quotes - Page 14

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• Great writers create; writers of smaller gifts copy

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Copies, Great Writers

  4 Copy quote

• Because women can do nothing except love, they've given it a ridiculous importance. They want to persuade us that it's the whole of life. It's an insignificant part.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Want, Ridiculous, Given

  W. Somerset Maugham (2012). “The Moon and Sixpence”, p.108, Courier Corporation

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• Common-sense appears to be only another name for the thoughtlessness of the unthinking. It is made of the prejudices of childhood, the idiosyncrasies of individual character and the opinion of the newspapers.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Character, Names, Common Sense

  9 Copy quote

• When some incident has shattered the career you’ve mapped out for yourself, a folly, a crime or a misfortune, you mustn’t think you’re down and out. It may be a stroke of luck, and when you look back years later you may say to yourself that you wouldn’t for anything in the world exchange the new life disaster has forced upon you for the dull, humdrum existence you would have led if circumstances hadn’t intervened.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Thinking, Years, Careers

  4 Copy quote

• No author can create a character out of nothing. He must have a model to give him a starting point; but then his imagination goes to work, he builds him up, adding a trait here, a trait there, which his model did not possess.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Writing, Character, Giving

  4 Copy quote

• I now, weak, old, diseased, poor, dying, hold still my soul in my hands, and I regret nothing.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Regret, Hands, Soul

  4 Copy quote

• I never met an author who admitted that people did not buy his book because it was dull.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Book, Reading, People

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

  4 Copy quote

• The secret of play-writing can be given in two maxims: stick to the point, and, whenever you can, cut.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Writing, Cutting, Play

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

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• The trouble with young writers is that they are all in their sixties.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Writing, Young Writers, Trouble

  8 Copy quote

• On the earth, satellite of a star speeding through space, living things had arisen under the influence of conditions which were part of the planet's history; and as there had been a beginning of life upon it, so, under the influence of other conditions, there would be an end: man, no more significant than other forms of life, had come not as the climax of creation but as a physical reaction to the environment.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Stars, Men, Space

  4 Copy quote

• Culture is not just an ornament; it is the expression of a nation's character, and at the same time it is a powerful instrument to mould character. The end of culture is right living.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Life, Powerful, Character

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• I wonder how anyone can have the face to condemn others when he reflects upon his own thoughts.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Faces, Wonder, Wit

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

  4 Copy quote

• The writer is more concerned to know than to judge.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Writing, Judging, Concerned

  W. Somerset Maugham (2014). “The Great Novels and Short Stories of Somerset Maugham: One of the Finest Writers of Short Stories Who Ever Lived”, p.328, Skyhorse Publishing, Inc.

  7 Copy quote

• A novelist must preserve a childlike belief in the importance of things which common sense considers of no great consequence.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Common Sense, Novelists, Belief

  4 Copy quote

• Follow your inclinations with due regard to the policeman round the corner.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Dignity, Human Bondage, Policemen

  W. Somerset Maugham (2016). “Of Human Bondage (Diversion Classics)”, p.356, Diversion Books

  7 Copy quote

• Tolerance is another word for indifference.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Diversity, Tolerance, Social Justice

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• Thank God, I can look at a sunset now without having to think how to describe it

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Sunset, Thinking, Thank God

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

  26 Copy quote

• Have common sense and stick to the point.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Common Sense, Sticks, Common

  7 Copy quote

• There is no object to life. To nature nothing matters but the continuation of the species.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Matter, Continuation, Species

  W. Somerset Maugham (2011). “A Writer's Notebook”, p.36, Random House

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• You are not angry with people when you laugh at them. Humour teaches tolerance, and the humorist, with a smile and perhaps a sigh, is more likely to shrug his shoulders than to condemn.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  People, Laughing, Tolerance

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

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• Excess on occasion is exhilarating. It prevents moderation from acquiring the deadening effect of a habit. It's a funny thing about life; if you refuse to accept anything but the best, you very often get it. Like all weak men he laid an exaggerated stress on not changing one's mind.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Inspirational, Stress, Men

  Of Human Bondage ch. 39 (1915)

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• The artist produces for the liberation of his soul.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Artist, Soul, Produce

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

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• Perhaps it would have been possible to see in him a new Prometheus...the hero who for the good of mankind exposes himself to the agonies of the damned...undaunted by failure, by an unceasing effort of courage holding despair at bay, doggedly persistent in the face of self-doubt, which is the artist's bitterest enemy.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Art, Hero, Self

  5 Copy quote

• The value of money is that with it we can tell any man to go to the devil. It is the sixth sense which enables you to enjoy the other five.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Money, Men, Devil

  4 Copy quote

• One does not really feel much grief at other people's sorrows; one tries, and puts on a melancholy face, thinking oneself brutal for not caring more; but one cannot and it is better, for if one grieved too deeply at other people's tears, life would be unendurable; and every man has sufficient sorrows of his own without taking to heart his neighbour's.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Grief, Heart, Caring

  4 Copy quote

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