Art Quotes by W. Somerset Maugham

There is nothing so terrible as the pursuit of art by those who have no talent.

— W. Somerset Maugham

Life isn't long enough for love and art.

— W. Somerset Maugham

Art for art's sake makes no more sense than gin for gin's sake.

— W. Somerset Maugham

The artist produces for the liberation of his soul.

— W. Somerset Maugham

Art is triumphant when it can use convention as an instrument of its own purpose.

— W. Somerset Maugham

The artist can within limits make what he likes of his life... It is only the artist, and maybe the criminal, who…

— W. Somerset Maugham

Art is a manifestation of emotion, and emotion speaks a language that all may understand.

— W. Somerset Maugham

Of all these the richest in beauty is the beautiful life. That is the perfect work of art. ~Waddington

— W. Somerset Maugham

It is not for nothing that artists have called their works the children of their brains and likened the pains of production…

— W. Somerset Maugham

An art is only great and significant if it is one that all may enjoy. The art of a clique is but…

— W. Somerset Maugham

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

— W. Somerset Maugham

There are directors who desire to be artistic. It is pathetic to compare the seriousness of their aim with the absurdity of…

— W. Somerset Maugham

But I am not sure it would contain any short stories. For the short story is a minor art, and it must…

— W. Somerset Maugham

Reverie is the groundwork of creative imagination; it is the privilege of the artist that with him it is not as with…

— W. Somerset Maugham

“You will hear people say that poverty is the best spur to the artist. They have never felt the iron of it…

— W. Somerset Maugham

“It is a grotesque misapprehension which sees in art no more than a craft comprehensible perfectly only to the craftsman: art is…

— W. Somerset Maugham

“I have written this because it may have escaped the notice of many who have admired her [Marie Tempest] brilliant performances that…

— W. Somerset Maugham

Art, if it is to be reckoned as one of the great values of life, must teach man humility, tolerance, wisdom and…

— W. Somerset Maugham

“It gives him spiritual freedom. To him life is a tragedy and by his gift of creation he enjoys the catharsis a…

— W. Somerset Maugham

Yet magic is no more than the art of employing consciously invisible means to produce visible effects. Will, love and imagination are…

— W. Somerset Maugham

“Beauty is something wonderful and strange that the artist fashions out of the chaos of the world in the torment of his…

— W. Somerset Maugham

Why should you think that beauty, which is the most precious thing in the world, lies like a stone on the beach…

— W. Somerset Maugham

“Oh, my dear fellow, if you want to be a gentleman you must give up being an artist. They’ve got nothing to…

— W. Somerset Maugham

Perhaps it would have been possible to see in him a new Prometheus...the hero who for the good of mankind exposes himself…

— W. Somerset Maugham

“I wonder if it matters that what they have aimed at is illusion. Their lives are in themselves beautiful. I have an…

— W. Somerset Maugham

“A man's work reveals him. In social intercourse he gives you the surface that he wishes the world to accept, but in…

— W. Somerset Maugham

“I had not then acquired the technique that I flatter myself now enables me to deal competently with the works of modern…

— W. Somerset Maugham

“The Work of Art. When I watch the audience at a concert or the crowd in the picture gallery I ask myself…

— W. Somerset Maugham

“He had violent passions, and on occasion desire seized his body so that he was driven to an orgy of lust, but…

— W. Somerset Maugham

“Humility is a virtue that is enjoined upon us. So far as the artist is concerned, with good reason; indeed, when he…

— W. Somerset Maugham

“And if I am not mistaken here is the secret of the greatness that was Spain. In Spain it is men that…

— W. Somerset Maugham

“To my mind the most interesting thing in art is the personality of the artist; and if that is singular, I am…

— W. Somerset Maugham

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

— W. Somerset Maugham

I never spend more than one hour in a gallery. That is as long as one's power of appreciation persists.

— W. Somerset Maugham

Beauty is something wonderful and strange that the artist fashions out of the chaos of the world in the torment of his…

— W. Somerset Maugham

“To my mind the most interesting thing in art is the personality of the artist; and if that is singular, I am…

— W. Somerset Maugham

Art should be appreciated with passion and violence, not with a tepid, depreciating elegance that fears the censoriousness of a common room.

— W. Somerset Maugham

The artist produces for the liberation of his soul. It is his nature to create as it is the nature of water…

— W. Somerset Maugham

In business sharp practice sometimes succeeds, but in art honesty is not only the best but the only policy.

— W. Somerset Maugham

I have an idea that the only thing which makes it possible to regard this world we live in without disgust is…

— W. Somerset Maugham