Love is only a dirty trick played on us to achieve continuation of the species.
W. Somerset Maugham

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

Men have an extraordinarily erroneous opinion of their position in nature; and the error is ineradicable.
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 is the string with which a sardonic destiny directs the motions of its puppets.
W. Somerset Maugham

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.
W. Somerset Maugham

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

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

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

Only a mediocre person is always at his best.
W. Somerset Maugham

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

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

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

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

The ability to quote is a serviceable substitute for wit.
W. Somerset Maugham

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.
W. Somerset Maugham

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.
W. Somerset Maugham

The crown of literature is poetry.
W. Somerset Maugham

The essence of the beautiful is unity in variety.
W. Somerset Maugham