Mind Quotes by W. Somerset Maugham

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

No affectation of peculiarity can conceal a commonplace mind.

— W. Somerset Maugham

“...he felt a queer little pang of bitterness because reality seemed so different from the ideal”

— W. Somerset Maugham

I made up my mind long ago that life was too short to do anything for myself that I could pay others…

— W. Somerset Maugham

Like all weak men he laid an exaggerated stress on not changing one's mind.

— W. Somerset Maugham

I can imagine no more comfortable frame of mind for the conduct of life than a humorous resignation.

— W. Somerset Maugham

The crown of literature is poetry. It is its end and aim. It is the sublimest activity of the human mind. It…

— W. Somerset Maugham

Comedy appeals to the collective mind of the audience and this grows fatigued; while farce appeals to a more robust organ, their…

— W. Somerset Maugham

“He was left a good deal to himself. He had been inclined to talkativeness, but gradually he became silent. He began to…

— W. Somerset Maugham

“He could not bear the thought of discussing his situation, he could endure it only by determining resolutely not to think about…

— W. Somerset Maugham

“He realized that he was manacled hand and foot with fetters that were only more intolerable because they consisted of nothing more…

— W. Somerset Maugham

I have always been convinced that if a woman once made up her mind to marry a man, nothing but instant flight…

— W. Somerset Maugham

“He could breathe more freely in a lighter air. He was responsible only to himself for the things he did. Freedom! He…

— W. Somerset Maugham

“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

It must be that there is something naturally absurd in a sincere emotion, though why there should be I cannot imagine, unless…

— W. Somerset Maugham

Excess on occasion is exhilarating. It prevents moderation from acquiring the deadening effect of a habit. It's a funny thing about life;…

— W. Somerset Maugham

The tragedy of love is not death or separation. How long do you think it would have been before one or other…

— W. Somerset Maugham

“He had talked of getting occupation of this sort so long that he had not the face to refuse outright, but the…

— W. Somerset Maugham

But Philip was impatient with himself; he called to mind his idea of the pattern of life: the unhappiness he had suffered…

— W. Somerset Maugham

All important persons have about them someone in a subordinate position who has their ear. These dependents are very susceptible to slights,…

— W. Somerset Maugham

This love was a torment, and he resented bitterly the subjugation in which it held him; he was a prisoner and he…

— W. Somerset Maugham

I can only guess that it made the world he went back to...strangely without meaning. Though he lived in it, though he…

— W. Somerset Maugham

“He put off the faith of his childhood quite simply, like a cloak that he no longer needed. At first life seemed…

— W. Somerset Maugham

“Philip thought that in throwing over the desire for happiness he was casting aside the last of his illusions. His life had…

— W. Somerset Maugham

Everyone had some defect, or body or of mind: he thought of all the people he had known (the whole world was…

— W. Somerset Maugham

“Philip thought of the countless millions to whom life is no more than unending labour, neither beautiful nor ugly, but just to…

— W. Somerset Maugham

“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

“His habit of reading isolated him: it became such a need that after being in company for some time he grew tired…

— W. Somerset Maugham

“It amused him sometimes to consider that his friends, because he had a face which did not express his feelings very vividly…

— W. Somerset Maugham

“He did not know what he sought or what his journeys would bring him; but he had a feeling that he would…

— W. Somerset Maugham

“Thank god I'm free from all that now", he thought. And yet even as he said it he was not quit sure…

— W. Somerset Maugham

Vaguely, as when you are studying a foreign language and read a page which at first you can make nothing of, till…

— W. Somerset Maugham

The arguments for immortality, weak when you take them one by one, are no more cogent when you take them together... For…

— W. Somerset Maugham

“Suddenly he realised that he had lost also that burden of responsibility which made every action of his life a matter of…

— W. Somerset Maugham

It needs a good deal of philosophy not to be mortified by the thought of persons who have voluntarily abandoned everything that…

— W. Somerset Maugham

The Americans, who are the most efficient people on the earth, have carried [phrase-making] to such a height of perfection and have…

— W. Somerset Maugham