“The bright hopes of youth had to be paid for at such a bitter price of disillusionment.” — W. Somerset Maugham Disillusionment Copy Share Image
What was it in the human heart that made you despise a man because he loved you? — W. Somerset Maugham Copy Share Image
“My dear, you used to be quite a dish; now you're quite a tureen.” — W. Somerset Maugham Copy Share Image
It is a nuisance that knowledge can only be acquired by hard work. — W. Somerset Maugham Education Copy Share Image
The fact that a great many people believe something is no guarantee of its truth. — W. Somerset Maugham Copy Share Image
There is no object to life. To nature nothing matters but the continuation of the species. — W. Somerset Maugham Copy Share Image
“And you call yourself an English gentleman,' she exclaimed, savagely. 'No, that's a thing I've never done in all my life.” — W. Somerset Maugham English gentleman Copy Share Image
What does democracy come down to? The persuasive power of slogans invented by wily self-seeking politicians. — W. Somerset Maugham Atheism Copy Share Image
Sometimes people carry to such perfection the mask they have assumed that in due course they actually become the person they seem. — W. Somerset Maugham Mask Copy Share Image
In religion above all things the only thing of use is an objective truth. The only God that is of use is… — W. Somerset Maugham Copy Share Image
“The moral I draw is that the writer should seek his reward in the pleasure of his work and in release from… — W. Somerset Maugham Burden Copy Share Image
“It looked as though you did not act in a certain way because you thought in a certain way, but rather you… — W. Somerset Maugham Philosophy Copy Share Image
Life wouldn’t be worth living if I worried over the future as well as the present. When things are at their worst… — W. Somerset Maugham Life Copy Share Image
The great critic … must be a philosopher, for from philosophy he will learn serenity, impartiality, and the transitoriness of human things. — W. Somerset Maugham Copy Share Image
She’s wonderful. Tell her I’ve never seen such beautiful hands. I wonder what she sees in you.” Waddington, smiling, translated the question.… — W. Somerset Maugham Beautiful Copy Share Image
An author spends months writing a book, and maybe puts his heart's blood into it, and then it lies about unread till… — W. Somerset Maugham Copy Share Image
“There is nothing so difficult as to persuade men that they are ignorant. Bertha, exaggerating the seriousness of the affair, thought it… — W. Somerset Maugham Copy Share Image
“How strange was the relation between parents and children! When they were small the parents doted on them, passed through agonies of… — W. Somerset Maugham Children Copy Share Image
What has influenced my life more than any other single thing has been my stammer. Had I not stammered I would probably...… — W. Somerset Maugham Book Copy Share Image
“There was no meaning in life, and man by living served no end. It was immaterial whether he was born or not… — W. Somerset Maugham Belief in god Copy Share Image
Are you sure you can prevent yourself from falling in love one of these days? Such things do happen, you know, even… — W. Somerset Maugham Copy Share Image
“He began to read at haphazard. He entered upon each system with a little thrill of excitement, expecting to find in each… — W. Somerset Maugham Adventure Copy Share Image
“In the first place it's not true that people improve as you know them better: they don't. That's why one should only… — W. Somerset Maugham Acquaintance Copy Share Image
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 Agony Copy Share Image
She was a fool and he knew it and because he loved her it had made no difference. — W. Somerset Maugham Differences Copy Share Image
Usage is the only test. I prefer a phrase that is easy and unaffected to a phrase that is grammatical. — W. Somerset Maugham Copy Share Image
Anyone can tell the truth, but only very few of us can make epigrams. — W. Somerset Maugham Epigrams Copy Share Image
What makes old age hard to bear is not the failing of one's faculties, mental and physical, but the burden of one's… — W. Somerset Maugham Age Copy Share Image
When you are young you take the kindness people show you as your right. — W. Somerset Maugham Kindness Copy Share Image
There is only one way to win hearts and that is to make oneself like unto those of whom one would be… — W. Somerset Maugham Heart Copy Share Image
Money is the string with which a sardonic destiny directs the motions of its puppets. — W. Somerset Maugham Destiny Copy Share Image
It might be that to surrender to happiness was to accept defeat, but it was a defeat better than many victories. — W. Somerset Maugham Copy Share Image
“His love became a prison from which he longed to escape, but he had not the strength merely to open the door-that… — W. Somerset Maugham Love Copy Share Image
“No one any good you be sure,' said Mrs. Kemp. 'I can't swaller these new people as are comin' in; the street… — W. Somerset Maugham Copy Share Image
There is a sort of man who pays no attention to his good actions, but is tormented by his bad ones. This… — W. Somerset Maugham Action Copy Share Image
“Is it rash to assume that when a practised writer says a thing, he is more likely to mean what he says… — W. Somerset Maugham Writer Copy Share Image
Culture is not just an ornament; it is the expression of a nation's character, and at the same time it is a… — W. Somerset Maugham Accountability Copy Share Image
“I've got no mother, no wife, no kids. I had, but my mother's dead, and I lost my wife and my kids… — W. Somerset Maugham Copy Share Image
“She would not risk to grow so fond of her home that it was a pain to leave it; she preferred to… — W. Somerset Maugham Beauty Copy Share Image
“You poor lonely boy,' she cried, 'it's so dreadful for you to have no parents.' Well, as my mother was a whore,… — W. Somerset Maugham Humor Copy Share Image
