All the words I use in my stories can be found in the dictionary-it's just a matter of arranging them into the… — W. Somerset Maugham Copy Share Image
Women are constantly trying to commit suicide for love, but generally they take care not to succeed. — W. Somerset Maugham Care Copy Share Image
If it is necessary sometimes to lie to others, it is always despicable to lie to oneself. — W. Somerset Maugham Copy Share Image
He found that it was easy to make a heroic gesture, but hard to abide by its results. — W. Somerset Maugham Copy Share Image
I now, weak, old, diseased, poor, dying, hold still my soul in my hands, and I regret nothing. — W. Somerset Maugham Death Copy Share Image
Well, you know when people are no good at anything else they become writers. — W. Somerset Maugham Copy Share Image
“There was neither good nor bad there. There were just facts. It was life.” — W. Somerset Maugham Facts Copy Share Image
In the conduct of life we make use of deliberation to justify ourselves in doing what we want to do. — W. Somerset Maugham Deliberation 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
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 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 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
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
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 Copy Share Image
“I have nothing to do with others, I am only concerned with myself. I take advantage of the fact that the majority… — W. Somerset Maugham Pleasure Copy Share Image
“I can't afford to let my judgement be clouded by any feeling that I might have for a human being. You are… — W. Somerset Maugham Copy Share Image
“You don't know the difference between truth and make-believe. You never stop acting. It's second nature to you. You act when there's… — W. Somerset Maugham Copy Share Image
The world is hard and cruel. We are here none knows why, and we go none knows whither. We must be very… — W. Somerset Maugham Beauty Copy Share Image
“I respect him. He has brains and character; and that, I may tell you, is a very unusual combination. I don't suppose… — W. Somerset Maugham Copy Share Image
The complete life, the perfect pattern, includes old age as well as youth and maturity. The beauty of the morning and the… — W. Somerset Maugham Age Copy Share Image
I travel because I like to move from place to place, I enjoy the sense of freedom it gives me, it pleases… — W. Somerset Maugham Copy Share Image
“Larry sat with his arm stretched out along the top of the front seat. His shirt cuff was pulled back by his… — W. Somerset Maugham Beauty Copy Share Image
“The path to Salvation is as narrow and as difficult to walk as a razor's edge.” — W. Somerset Maugham Determination Copy Share Image
“What do you value in life then?" "I'm afraid you'll laugh at me. Beauty, truth, and goodness.” — W. Somerset Maugham Beauty Copy Share Image
An unfortunate thing about this world is that the good habits are much easier to give up than the bad ones. — W. Somerset Maugham Copy Share Image
It has amazed me that the most incongruous traits should exist in the same person and, for all that, yield a plausible… — W. Somerset Maugham Copy Share Image
Music-hall songs provide the dull with wit, just as proverbs provide them with wisdom. — W. Somerset Maugham Copy Share Image
It seems that the creative faculty and the critical faculty cannot exist together in their highest perfection. — W. Somerset Maugham Copy Share Image
Habits in writing as in life are only useful if they are broken as soon as they cease to be advantageous. — W. Somerset Maugham Copy Share Image
“It is hard that a man's exterior should tally so little sometimes with his soul.” — W. Somerset Maugham Soul Copy Share Image
Some American delusions: 1) That there is no class-consciousness in the country. 2) That American coffee is good. 3) That Americans are… — W. Somerset Maugham America Copy Share Image
I happen to think we’ve set our ideal on the wrong objects; I happen to think that the greatest ideal man can… — W. Somerset Maugham Ideal man Copy Share Image
“Reverence for what somebody said is a stultifying quality: there's a damned sight too much reverence in the world. Kant thought things… — W. Somerset Maugham Copy Share Image
There is no need for the writer to eat a whole sheep to be able to tell you what mutton tastes like.… — W. Somerset Maugham Copy Share Image
Some of us look for the Way in opium and some in God, some of us in whiskey and some in love.… — W. Somerset Maugham Copy Share Image
“I would sooner read the catalogue of the Army and Navy Stores or Bradshaw's Guide than nothing at all, and indeed I… — W. Somerset Maugham Writer Copy Share Image
“Why do you seek the society of someone who hates and despises you?" "My dear fellow, what the hell do you suppose… — W. Somerset Maugham Copy Share Image
I'll give you my opinion of the human race in a nutshell... their heart's in the right place, but their head is… — W. Somerset Maugham Heart Copy Share Image
