“The general idiocy of mankind is such that they can be swayed by words, and however mortifying, for the present you have… — W. Somerset Maugham Cinema Copy Share Image
You will have to learn many tedious things,...which you will forget the moment you have passed your final examination, but in anatomy… — W. Somerset Maugham Anatomy Copy Share Image
“Two little drops in that river that flowed silently towards the unknown; two little drops that to themselves had so much individuality… — W. Somerset Maugham River Copy Share Image
“I don’t see why the things we believe absolutely now shouldn’t be just as wrong as what they believed in the past.’… — W. Somerset Maugham Belief Copy Share Image
The value of money is that with it we can tell any man to go to the devil. It is the sixth… — W. Somerset Maugham Devil Copy Share Image
No author can create a character out of nothing. He must have a model to give him a starting point; but then… — W. Somerset Maugham Books Copy Share Image
He exulted in the possession of himself once more; he realized how much of the delight of the world he had lost… — W. Somerset Maugham Delight Copy Share Image
In the country the darkness of night is friendly and familiar, but in a city, with its blaze of lights, it is… — W. Somerset Maugham Country Copy Share Image
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 Animosity Copy Share Image
...I couldn't but surmise that the devil, looking at the cruel wars that Christianity has occasioned, the persecutions, the tortures Christian has… — W. Somerset Maugham Agnostic Copy Share Image
A writer need not devour a whole sheep in order to know what mutton tastes like, but he must at least eat… — W. Somerset Maugham Copy Share Image
“He was always seeking for a meaning in life, and here it seemed to him that a meaning was offered; but it… — W. Somerset Maugham Life 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 Asceticism Copy Share Image
“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 Books Copy Share Image
“I used to listen to the monks repeating the Lord's Prayer; I wondered how they could continue to pray without misgiving to… — W. Somerset Maugham Daily bread Copy Share Image
“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 Adventure Copy Share Image
When a man's in love, he at once makes a pedestal of the Ten Commandments and stands on the top of them… — W. Somerset Maugham Copy Share Image
“Just as the embryo recapitulates in brief the evolution of the species, so did Suzanne recapitulate all the styles of her lovers.” — W. Somerset Maugham Embryo Copy Share Image
When a woman loves you she's not satisfied until she possesses your soul. Because she's weak, she has a rage for domination,… — W. Somerset Maugham Domination Copy Share Image
“Ye cannot find out the depth of the heart of man, neither can ye perceive the things that he thinketh; then how… — W. Somerset Maugham Psychology Copy Share Image
“A thing that had always struck her about the child was that he seemed so collected. She had never seen him cry.… — W. Somerset Maugham Children Copy Share Image
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 Action Copy Share Image
Death doesn't affect the living because it has not happened yet. Death doesn't concern the dead because they have ceased to exist. — W. Somerset Maugham Copy Share Image
“You know, my dear child, that one cannot find peace in work or in pleausre, in the world or in a convent,… — W. Somerset Maugham Child Copy Share Image
When we come to judge others it is not by ourselves as we really are that we judge them, but by an… — W. Somerset Maugham Criticism Copy Share Image
If a nation values anything more than freedom, it will lose its freedom, and the irony of it is that if it… — W. Somerset Maugham Freedom Copy Share Image
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 Copy Share Image
The officers saluted as she passed and gravely bowed. They walked back across the courtyard and got into their chairs. She saw… — W. Somerset Maugham Copy Share Image
“When he sacrifices himself man for a moment is greater than God, for how can God, infinite and omnipotent, sacrifice himself? At… — W. Somerset Maugham Sacrifice Copy Share Image
Things were easier for the old novelists who saw people all of a piece. Speaking generally, their heroes were good through and… — W. Somerset Maugham Copy Share Image
Any nation that thinks more of its ease and comfort than its freedom will soon lose its freedom; and the ironical thing… — W. Somerset Maugham Comfort Copy Share Image
“It is quite as difficult to fit one's practice to one's precepts as to fit one's precepts to one's practice. Most people… — W. Somerset Maugham Precepts Copy Share Image
“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 Life Copy Share Image
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 Change Copy Share Image
“But that wasn't the chief thing that bothered me: I couldn't reconcile myself with that preoccupation with sin that, so far as… — W. Somerset Maugham Foul language Copy Share Image
Women are strange little beasts,' he said to Dr. Coutras. 'You can treat them like dogs, you can beat them till your… — W. Somerset Maugham Absurd Copy Share Image
“He had passed his life in the pursuit of happiness, and had never learnt that happiness is best attained when it is… — W. Somerset Maugham Happiness Copy Share Image
“Why do you read then?' Partly for pleasure, because it's a habit and I'm just as uncomfortable if I don't read as… — W. Somerset Maugham Books Copy Share Image
“Do you know, it seems to me that a great deal of nonsense is talked about the dignity of work. Work is… — W. Somerset Maugham Dignity of work Copy Share Image
“Insensibly he formed the most delightful habit in the world, the habit of reading: When you are reconciled to the fact that… — W. Somerset Maugham Believe in god Copy Share Image
