W. Somerset Maugham Quotes - Page 8

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• He is not famous. It may be that he never will be. It may be that when his life at last comes to an end he will leave no more trace of his sojourn on earth than a stone thrown into a river leaves on the surface of the water. But it may be that the way of life that he has chosen for himself and the peculiar strength and sweetness of his character may have an ever-growing influence over his fellow men so that, long after his death perhaps, it may be realized that there lived in this age a very remarkable creature.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Character, Men, Rivers

  12 Copy quote

• The prestige you acquire by being able to tell your friends that you know famous men proves only that you are yourself of small account.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Men, Able, Reputation

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

  7 Copy quote

• Excess on occasion is exhilarating. It prevents moderation from acquiring the deadening effect of a habit.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Inspirational, Life, Excess

  W. Somerset Maugham (2010). “The Summing Up”, p.47, Random House

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• Life is really very fantastic, and one has to have a peculiar sense of humour to see the fun of it. [Virtue]

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Fun, Peculiar, Life Is

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• No married man's ever made up his mind until he's heard what his wife has got to say about it.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Men, Wife, Mind

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• The best style is the style you don't notice.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Writing, Style, Creative Writing

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• In the conduct of life we make use of deliberation to justify ourselves in doing what we want to do.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Use, Want, Ethics

  W. Somerset Maugham (2010). “The Summing Up”, p.49, Random House

  4 Copy quote

• Advice to first year medical students: In anatomy, it is better to have learned and lost than never to have learned at all.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Years, Advice, Firsts

  7 Copy quote

• It might be that to surrender to happiness was to accept defeat, but it was a defeat better than many victories.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Victory, Might, Defeat

  W. Somerset Maugham (2016). “Of Human Bondage (Diversion Classics)”, p.848, Diversion Books

  14 Copy quote

• I wish I could make you see how much fuller the life I offer you is than anything you have a conception of. I wish I could make you see how exciting the life of the spirit is and how rich in experience. It's illimitable. It's such a happy life. There's only one thing like it, when you're up in a plane by yourself, high, high, and only infinity surrounds you. You're intoxicated by the boundless space.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Happy Life, Space, Wish

  11 Copy quote

• The good traveler has the gift of surprise.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Surprise, Traveler

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

  4 Copy quote

• A little smoke lost in the air, that was the life of a man.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Men, Air, Littles

  W. Somerset Maugham (2009). “The Painted Veil”, p.160, Random House

  4 Copy quote

• I am afraid of people with too much charm. They devour you. In the end you are made a sacrifice to the exercise of their fascinating gift and their insincerity.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Exercise, Sacrifice, People

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

  12 Copy quote

• A Unitarian very earnestly disbelieves what everyone else believes.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Believe, Religion, Unitarian

  8 Copy quote

• [Money] is the string with which a sardonic destiny directs the motions of its puppets.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Destiny, Puppets, Strings

  "Somerset Maugham". Book by Ted Morgan, 1980.

  20 Copy quote

• Charm and nothing but charm at last grows a little tiresome. It's a relief then to deal with a man who isn't quite so delightful but a little more sincere.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Men, Relief, Littles

  6 Copy quote

• Refecting on the high divorce rate in America as contrasted with England "American women expect to find in their husbands a perfection that English women only hope to find in their butlers

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Husband, Divorce, America

  7 Copy quote

• When I was young I had an elderly friend who used often to ask me to stay with him in the country. He was a religious man and he read prayers to the assembled household every morning. But he had crossed out in pencil all the passages that praised God. He said that there was nothing so vulgar as to praise people to their faces and, himself a gentleman, he could not believe that God was so ungentlemanly as to like it.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Country, Religious, Morning

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

  4 Copy quote

• Death doesn't affect the living because it has not happened yet. Death doesn't concern the dead because they have ceased to exist.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Inspirational, Life, Death

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• 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

  Eye, Deception, Independence

  The Moon and Sixpence ch. 14 (1919)

  17 Copy quote

• In Hollywood, the women are all peaches. It makes one long for an apple occasionally.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Apples, Long, Hollywood

  "Biography/ Personal Quotes". www.imdb.com.

  66 Copy quote

• There is only one thing about which I am certain, and this is that there is very little about which one can be certain

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Decision, Littles, Certain

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

  6 Copy quote

• Some of us look for the Way in opium and some in God, some of us in whiskey and some in love. It is all the same Way and it leads nowhither.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Way, Looks, Whiskey

  W. Somerset Maugham (2009). “The Painted Veil”, p.145, Random House

  8 Copy quote

• Man has always sacrificed truth to his vanity, comfort and advantage. He lives not by truth but by make-believe.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Life, Believe, Men

  W. Somerset Maugham (2010). “The Summing Up”, p.291, Random House

  5 Copy quote

• We Americans... like change. It is at once our weakness and our strength.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Weakness

  W. Somerset Maugham (2008). “The Razor's Edge”, p.5, Random House

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