W. Somerset Maugham Quotes - Page 8

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• When he sacrifices himself man for a moment is greater than God, for how can God, infinite and omnipotent, sacrifice himself?

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Atheist, Sacrifice, Men

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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

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• I was a stray acquaintance whom he had never seem before and would never see again, a wandered for a moment through his monotonous life, and some starved impulse left him to lay bare his soul. I have in this way learned more about men in a night than I could if I had known them for 10 years. If you are interested in human nature, it is one of the greatest pleasures of travel.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Life, Night, Men

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• 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”

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

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Writing, Style, Creative Writing

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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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• 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

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• 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

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• 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

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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

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• Art, unless it leads to right action, is no more than the opium of an intelligentsia.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Art, Morality, Action

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• The good traveler has the gift of surprise.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Surprise, Traveler

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

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• 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”

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• 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

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• A Unitarian very earnestly disbelieves what everyone else believes.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Believe, Religion, Unitarian

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• 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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• 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

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• [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.

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• 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”

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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)

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• You can never know enough about your characters

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Character, Enough, Knows

  W. Somerset Maugham (2010). “The Summing Up”, p.91, Random House

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• 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.

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• Every production of an artist should be the expression of an adventure of his soul.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Art, Travel, Adventure

  "Cakes and Ale, or, The Skeleton in the Cupboard" by W. Somerset Maugham, (p. 310), 1930.

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