W. Somerset Maugham

When I read a book I seem to read it with my eyes only, but now and then I come across a passage, perhaps only a phrase, which has a meaning for me, and it becomes part of me.

There are two good things in life - freedom of thought and freedom of action.

Marriage is a very good thing, but I think it's a mistake to make a habit out of it.

If a nation values anything more than freedom, it will lose its freedom, and the irony of it is that if it is comfort or money that it values more, it will lose that too.

It is an illusion that youth is happy, an illusion of those who have lost it.

What makes old age hard to bear is not the failing of one's faculties, mental and physical, but the burden of one's memories.

A man marries to have a home, but also because he doesn't want to be bothered with sex and all that sort of thing.

Have common sense and stick to the point.

Excess on occasion is exhilarating. It prevents moderation from acquiring the deadening effect of a habit.

Poker's the only game fit for a grown man. Then, your hand is against every man's, and every man's is against yours.

Charm and nothing but charm at last grows a little tiresome. Its a relief then to deal with a man who isnt quite so delightful but a little more sincere.

At a dinner party one should eat wisely but not too well, and talk well but not too wisely.

When you choose your friends dont be short changed by choosing personality over character.

For the complete life, the perfect pattern includes old age as well as youth and maturity.

The love that lasts longest is the love that is never returned.

The trouble with young writers is that they are all in their sixties.

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

No man in his heart is quite so cynical as a well bred woman.

You are not angry with people when you laugh at them. Humor teaches tolerance.

Death is a very dull, dreary affair, and my advice to you is to have nothing whatsoever to do with it.

No egoism is so insufferable as the Christian with regard to his soul.

The most useful thing about a principle is that it can always be sacrificed to expediency.

The world in general doesn't know what to make of originality; it is startled out of its comfortable habits of thought, and its first reaction is one of anger.

Money is like a sixth sense without which you cannot make a complete use of the other five.

Anyone can tell the truth, but only very few of us can make epigrams.

We learn resignation not by our own suffering, but by the suffering of others.

An unfortunate thing about this world is that the good habits are much easier to give up than the bad ones.

Every production of an artist should be the expression of an adventure of his soul.

The artist produces for the liberation of his soul. It is his nature to create as it is the nature of water to run down the hill.

Life is so largely controlled by chance that its conduct can be but a perpetual improvisation.

Men have an extraordinarily erroneous opinion of their position in nature; and the error is ineradicable.

We learn resignation not by our own suffering, but by the suffering of others.

Art is merely the refuge which the ingenious have invented, when they were supplied with food and women, to escape the tediousness of life.

Imagination grows by exercise, and contrary to common belief, is more powerful in the mature than in the young.

The writer of prose can only step aside when the poet passes.

The world is quickly bored by the recital of misfortune, and willing avoids the sight of distress.

We have long passed the Victorian Era when asterisks were followed after a certain interval by a baby.

Writing is the supreme solace.

For if the proper study of mankind is man it is evidently more sensible to occupy yourself with the coherent substantial and significant creatures of fiction than with the irrational and shadowy figures of real life.

Art for arts sake makes no more sense than gin for gins sake.

When you choose your friends, don't be short-changed by choosing personality over character.

Is the string with which a sardonic destiny directs the motions of its puppets.

The great American novel has not only already been written, it has already been rejected.

The essence of the beautiful is unity in variety.

The rain fell alike upon the just and upon the unjust, and for nothing was there a why and a wherefore.

Sentimentality is the only sentiment that rubs you the wrong way.

Old age is ready to undertake tasks that youth shirked because they would take too long.

Illusions are like umbrellas you no sooner get them than you lose them, and the loss always leaves a little painful wound.

People ask you for criticism but they only want praise.

Its a funny thing about life if you refuse to accept anything but the best you very often get it.

It's a funny thing about life; if you refuse to accept anything but the best, you very often get it.

She had a pretty gift for quotation, which is a serviceable substitute for wit.

Old age has its pleasures, which, though different, are not less than the pleasures of youth.

My own belief is that there is hardly anyone whose sexual life, if it were broadcast, would not fill the world at large with surprise and horror.

The normal is what you find but rarely. The normal is an ideal. It is a picture that one fabricates of the average characteristics of men, and to find them all in a single man is hardly to be expected.

You can do anything in this world if you are prepared to take the consequences.

Few misfortunes can befall a boy which bring worse consequence than to have a really affectionate mother.

Affection is created by habit community of interests convenience and the desire of companionship. It is a comfort rather than an exhilaration.

Tradition is a guide and not a jailer.

There are three rules for writing a novel. Unfortunately, no one knows what they are.

The secret to life is meaningless unless you discover it yourself.

Perfection has one grave defect: it is apt to be dull.

There is no explanation for evil. It must be looked upon as a necessary part of the order of the universe. To ignore it is childish, to bewail it senseless.

It is not true that suffering ennobles the character; happiness does that sometimes, but suffering for the most part, makes men petty and vindictive.

Impropriety is the soul of wit.

People ask for criticism, but they only want praise.

I'll give you my opinion of the human race in a nutshell... their heart's in the right place, but their head is a thoroughly inefficient organ.

It is well known that Beauty does not look with a good grace on the timid advances of Humour.

It is unsafe to take your reader for more of a fool than he is.

The tragedy of love is indifference.

Tolerance is another word for indifference.

We know our friends by their defects rather than by their merits.

We are not the same persons this year as last; nor are those we love. It is a happy chance if we, changing, continue to love a changed person.

The ability to quote is a serviceable substitute for wit.

The fact that a great many people believe something is no guarantee of its truth.

The most useful thing about a principle is that it can always be sacrificed to expediency.

There are two good things in life freedom of thought and freedom of action.

The humorist has a good eye for the humbug he does not always recognize the saint.

If you want to eat well in England eat three breakfasts.

When you are young you take the kindness people show you as your right.

The prestige you acquire by being able to tell your friends that you know famous men proves only that you are yourself of small account.

It is not wealth one asks for, but just enough to preserve one's dignity, to work unhampered, to be generous, frank and independent.

Considering how foolishly people act and how pleasantly they prattle, perhaps it would be better for the world if they talked more and did less.

If you don't change your beliefs, your life will be like this forever. Is that good news?

It is cruel to discover one's mediocrity only when it is too late. It does not improve the temper.

It is dangerous to let the public behind the scenes. They are easily disillusioned and then they are angry with you for it was the illusion they loved.

It wasn't until late in life that I discovered how easy it is to say, 'I don't know.'

Punctuality is a compliment you pay to the intelligent and a rebuke you pay to the stupid.

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

An unfortunate thing about this world is that the good habits are much easier to give up than the bad ones.

The common idea that success spoils people by making them vain, egotistic and self-complacent is erroneous; on the contrary it makes them, for the most part, humble, tolerant and kind.

Common sense and nature will do a lot to make the pilgrimage of life not too difficult.

Only a mediocre person is always at his best.

If it is necessary sometimes to lie to others it is always despicable to lie to oneself.

If you want to eat well in England, eat three breakfasts.

Money is the string with which a sardonic destiny directs the motions of its puppets.

The writer is more concerned to know than to judge.

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

The crown of literature is poetry.

It was such a lovely day I thought it a pity to get up.