“Other men, with no more advantages than he, succeeded, and others again, with many more, failed. It seemed pure chance. The rain… — W. Somerset Maugham Chance Copy Share Image
“When all things lasted so short a time and nothing mattered very much, it seemed pitiful that men, attaching an absurd importance… — W. Somerset Maugham Pitiful Copy Share Image
It is not difficult to be unconventional in the eyes of the world when your unconventionality is but the convention of your… — W. Somerset Maugham Conventions Copy Share Image
But the only important thing in a book is the meaning it has for you; it may have other and much more… — W. Somerset Maugham Book Copy Share Image
I've met so many people, often the scum of the earth, and found them, you know, quite decent. I am an uncomfortable… — W. Somerset Maugham Decent Copy Share Image
The great man is too often all of a piece; it is the little man that is a bundle of contradictory elements.… — W. Somerset Maugham Bundles Copy Share Image
Because women can do nothing except love, they've given it a ridiculous importance. They want to persuade us that it's the whole… — W. Somerset Maugham Feminism Copy Share Image
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 Art Copy Share Image
“In the week I promised myself I should naturally read, for to the habitual reader reading is a drug of which he… — W. Somerset Maugham Books Copy Share Image
“According to your proclivities, you may take a snow-clad Alpine peak, as it rises to the empyrean in radiant majesty, as symbol… — W. Somerset Maugham Dreams Copy Share Image
“The particular value attached of virginity is a fabrication of the male, due partly to superstition, partly to masculine vanity, and partly,… — W. Somerset Maugham Sexual intercourse Copy Share Image
Has it occurred to you that transmigration is at once an explanation and a justification of the evil of the world? If… — W. Somerset Maugham Bears Copy Share Image
“I have an idea that some men are born out of their due place. Accident has cast them amid certain surroundings, but… — W. Somerset Maugham Belonging Copy Share Image
To bear failure with courage is the best proof of character that anyone can give... You will find that people forget the… — W. Somerset Maugham Advice Copy Share Image
“C.-C.: My dear Arnold, we all hope that you have before you a distinguished political career. You can't learn too soon that… — W. Somerset Maugham Integrity Copy Share Image
“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 Career Copy Share Image
The value of culture is its effect on character. It avails nothing unless it ennobles and strengthens that. Its use is for… — W. Somerset Maugham Aim Copy Share Image
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 Art Copy Share Image
I forget who it was that recommended men for their soul's good to do each day two things they disliked: it was… — W. Somerset Maugham Bed Copy Share Image
The novel may stimulate you to think. It may satisfy your aesthetic sense. It may arouse your moral emotions. But if it… — W. Somerset Maugham Aesthetic Copy Share Image
“Like many another member of the gentle sex, she seems to have been ready enough to accept the perquisites of her position,… — W. Somerset Maugham Gentle Copy Share Image
Oh, it's always the same,' she sighed, 'if you want men to behave well to you, you must be beastly to them;… — W. Somerset Maugham Beastly Copy Share Image
“It tears my heart just as my heart is torn when on certain nights I watch the full moon shining on the… — W. Somerset Maugham Beauty Copy Share Image
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 Copy Share Image
“Melville, by his own account, spent four months in the valley. He was well treated. He made friends with a girl called… — W. Somerset Maugham Cannibalism Copy Share Image
“You see, you and I are the only people here who walk quite quietly and peaceably on solid ground. The nuns walk… — W. Somerset Maugham Nuns Copy Share Image
The world in general doesn't know what to make of originality; it is startled out of its comfortable habits of thought, and… — W. Somerset Maugham Anger Copy Share Image
“Though he had both esteem and admiration for the sensibility of the human race, he had little respect for their intelligence: man… — W. Somerset Maugham Admiration Copy Share Image
Almost all the people who’ve had the most effect on me I seem to have met by chance, yet looking back it… — W. Somerset Maugham Chance Copy Share Image
“PORTEOUS: Do you mean to say you were going to steal my car. TEDDIE: Not exactly. I was only going to bolshevise… — W. Somerset Maugham Mean Say Copy Share Image
Beauty is an ecstasy; it is as simple as hunger. There is really nothing to be said about it. It is like… — W. Somerset Maugham Beauty Copy Share Image
“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 Art Copy Share Image
There in the mist, enormous, majestic, silent and terrible, stood the Great Wall of China. Solitarily, with the indifference of nature herself,… — W. Somerset Maugham China Copy Share Image
“He was thankful not to have to believe in God, for then such a condition of things would be intolerable; one could… — W. Somerset Maugham Believe in god Copy Share Image
“She was one of those writers, far from rare in the world of letters, who suppose that push and pull are an… — W. Somerset Maugham Talent Copy Share Image
It is not true that suffering ennobles the character; happiness does that sometimes, but suffering for the most part, makes men petty… — W. Somerset Maugham Character Copy Share Image
“I was examined yesterday,' he remarked at last. 'It was worth while undergoing the gêne of it to know that one was… — W. Somerset Maugham Examined Copy Share Image
There are men who are possessed by an urge so strong to do some particular thing that they can't help themselves, they've… — W. Somerset Maugham Desire Copy Share Image
“Ashenden was in the habit of asserting that he was never bored. It was one of his notions that only such persons… — W. Somerset Maugham Amusement Copy Share Image
I am told that today rather more than 60 per cent of the men who go to the universities go on a… — W. Somerset Maugham Cents Copy Share Image
![“Though he had both esteem and admiration for the sensibility of the human race, he had little respect for their intelligence: man has always found it easier to sacrifice his life than to learn the multiplication table. [Mr Harrington's washing]” quote by W. Somerset Maugham](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/a0e/w-somerset-maugham-237_admiration_though-he-had-both-esteem-and-admiration_120835.jpg)
![“Ashenden was in the habit of asserting that he was never bored. It was one of his notions that only such persons were as had no resources in themselves and it was but the stupid that depended on the outside world for their amusement. [Giulia Lazzari]” quote by W. Somerset Maugham](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/f47/w-somerset-maugham-237_habits_ashenden-was-in-the-habit-of-asserting-t_1356244.jpg)
