W. Somerset Maugham Quotes - Page 18

Quotes about:

• We have long passed the Victorian Era when asterisks were followed after a certain interval by a baby.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Baby, Long, Eras

  W. Somerset Maugham (2017). “Plays Volume One”, p.278, Random House

  7 Copy quote

• Let us develop the resources of our land, call forth its powers, build up its institutions, promote all its great interests, and see whether we also, in our day and generation, may not perform something worthy to be remembered.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Power, Land, Self Improvement

  Address on Laying the Cornerstone of the Bunker Hill Monument, www.dartmouth.edu. June 17, 1825.

  7 Copy quote

• Are you sure you can prevent yourself from falling in love one of these days? Such things do happen, you know, even to the most prudent men.' Simon gave him a strange, one might even have thought a hostile, look. I should tear it out of my heart as I'd wrench out of my mouth a rotten tooth.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Falling In Love, Heart, Men

  W. Somerset Maugham (1939). “Christmas Holiday”

  4 Copy quote

• I did not believe him capable of love. That is an emotion in which tenderness is an essential part, but Strickland had no tenderness either for himself or for others; there is in love a sense of weakness, a desire to protect, an eagerness to do good and to give pleasure--if not unselfishness, at all events a selfishness which marvellously conceals itself; it has in it a certain diffidence.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Believe, Giving, Desire

  W. Somerset Maugham (2006). “The Moon and Sixpence”, p.84, Courier Corporation

  4 Copy quote

• She was a fool and he knew it and because he loved her it had made no difference.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Differences, Fool, Made

  4 Copy quote

• She could not admit but that he had remarkable qualities, sometimes she thought that there was even in him a strange and unattractive greatness; it was curious then that she could not love him, but loved still a man whose worthlessness was now so clear to her.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Greatness, Men, Quality

  13 Copy quote

• The worst of having so much tact was that you never quite knew whether other people were acting naturally or being tactful too. [The human element]

  W. Somerset Maugham

  People, Acting, Elements

  5 Copy quote

• The value of culture is its effect on character. It avails nothing unless it ennobles and strengthens that. Its use is for life. Its aim is not beauty but goodness.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Character, Personality, Culture

  4 Copy quote

• When married people don't get on they can separate, but if they're not married it's impossible. It's a tie that only death can sever.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Friendship, Ties, People

  6 Copy quote

• And I have the sunset, and the Tuscan wine, and the white teeth of the women in Rome. I am a traveler in Romance.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Wine, Sunset, Rome

  10 Copy quote

• A woman will always sacrifice herself if you give her the opportunity. It is her favourite form of self indulgence.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Love, Women, Sacrifice

  Circle (1921) act 3

  4 Copy quote

• I promised myself that if ever I had some money that I would savor a cigar each day after lunch and dinner. This is the only resolution of my youth that I have kept, and the only realized ambition which has not brought disillusion.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Funny, Humorous, Ambition

  8 Copy quote

• It's always difficult to make conversation with a drunk, and there's no denying it, the sober are at a disadvantage with him.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Drinking, Drunk, Sober

  7 Copy quote

• I am told that today rather more than 60 per cent of the men who go to the universities go on a Government grant. This is a new class that has entered upon the scene ... They are scum.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Men, Class, Goes On

  4 Copy quote

• For if the proper study of mankind is man, it is evidently more sensible to occupy yourself with the coherent, substantial and significant creatures of fiction than with the irrational and shadowy figures of real life.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Real, Men, Occupy Yourself

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

  8 Copy quote

• There's nothing the world loves more than a ready-made description which they can hang on to a man, and so save themselves all trouble in future.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Men, World Love, Trouble

  4 Copy quote

• So long as some are strong and some are weak, the weak will be driven to the wall.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Strength, Strong, Wall

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

  4 Copy quote

• In heaven, when the blessed use the telephone they will say what they have to say and not a word besides.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Blessed, Heaven, Use

  W. Somerset Maugham (1966). “A Maugham Twelve: Stories selected and with an introduction by Angus Wilson”

  4 Copy quote

• Truth is not only stranger than fiction, it is more telling. To know that a thing actually happened gives it a poignancy, touches a chord, which a piece of acknowledged fiction misses. It is to touch this chord that some authors have done everything they could to give you the impression that they are telling the plain truth.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Giving, Missing, Fiction

  4 Copy quote

• When she liked anyone it was quite natural for her to go to bed with him. She never thought twice about it. It was not vice; it wasn't lasciviousness; it was her nature. She gave herself as naturally as the sun gives heat or the flowers their perfume. It was a pleasure to her and she liked to give pleasure to others.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Funny, Sex, Humorous

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

  4 Copy quote

• We didn't think much in the air corps of a fellow who wangled a cushy job out of his C.O. by buttering him up. It was hard for me to believe that God thought much of a man who tried to wangle salvation by fulsome flattery. I should have thought the worship most pleasing to him was to do your best according to your lights.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  God, Jobs, Believe

  W. Somerset Maugham (2008). “The Razor's Edge”, p.275, Random House

  4 Copy quote

• Some American delusions: 1) That there is no class-consciousness in the country. 2) That American coffee is good. 3) That Americans are business-like. 4) That Americans are highly-sexed and that redheads are more highly sexed than others.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Country, Travel, Coffee

  5 Copy quote

• You will have to learn many tedious things,...which you will forget the moment you have passed your final examination, but in anatomy it is better to have learned and lost than never to have learned at all.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Learning, Finals, Examination

  Of Human Bondage Ch. LIV

  4 Copy quote

• Genius is talent provided with ideals. Genius starves while talent wears purple and fine linen. The man of genius of today will infifty years' time be in most cases no more than a man of talent.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Men, Years, Purple

  4 Copy quote

• Music-hall songs provide the dull with wit, just as proverbs provide them with wisdom.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Song, Dull, Wit

  W. Somerset Maugham (2011). “A Writer's Notebook”, p.15, Random House

  4 Copy quote

Page 18 of 21

First

← Prev

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

19

20

21

Next →

• facebook
• twitter
• googleplus
• email
• linkedin