W. Somerset Maugham Quotes

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

Age, Different, Old

People ask for criticism, but they only want praise.
W. Somerset Maugham

Criticism, Ask, Praise

The love that lasts longest is the love that is never returned.
W. Somerset Maugham

Love, Longest, Lasts

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

Life, Mind, Imagine

Let us develop the resources of our land, call forth its powers, build up its institutions, promote all its great interests, and see whether we also, in our day and generation, may not perform something worthy to be remembered.
W. Somerset Maugham

Great, May, Whether

Have common sense and stick to the point.
W. Somerset Maugham

Sense, Point, Common

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

Happy, Lost, Youth

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

Money, Destiny, String

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

Food, Three, Eat

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.
W. Somerset Maugham

Heart, Human, Give

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.
W. Somerset Maugham

Anger, Thought, General

Impropriety is the soul of wit.
W. Somerset Maugham

Perfection is a trifle dull. It is not the least of life's ironies that this, which we all aim at, is better not quite achieved.
W. Somerset Maugham

Life, Perfection, Quite

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.
W. Somerset Maugham

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

Money, Cannot, Sense

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

Great, American, Written

Sentimentality is the only sentiment that rubs you the wrong way.
W. Somerset Maugham

Wrong, Sentiment, Rubs

Things were easier for the old novelists who saw people all of a piece. Speaking generally, their heroes were good through and through, their villains wholly bad.
W. Somerset Maugham

Good, Bad, Through

Tolerance is another word for indifference.
W. Somerset Maugham

Another, Word, Tolerance

We know our friends by their defects rather than by their merits.
W. Somerset Maugham

Friends, Rather, Defects

No egoism is so insufferable as that of the Christian with regard to his soul.
W. Somerset Maugham

Christian, Soul, Egoism

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

Tradition is a guide and not a jailer.
W. Somerset Maugham

Tradition, Guide, Jailer

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

Others, Suffering, Learn

What has influenced my life more than any other single thing has been my stammer. Had I not stammered I would probably... have gone to Cambridge as my brothers did, perhaps have become a don and every now and then published a dreary book about French literature.
W. Somerset Maugham

Life, Single, Book

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Biography

Nationality: British

Type: Playwright

Born: January 25, 1874

Died: December 16, 1965

Links

Find on Amazon: W. Somerset Maugham

Cite this Page: Citation

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