48 Quotes By W. Somerset Maugham


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

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 on age

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

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 on anger

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.
W. Somerset Maugham on anniversary

Every production of an artist should be the expression of an adventure of his soul.
W. Somerset Maugham on art

Beauty is an ecstasy it is as simple as hunger. There is really nothing to be said about it. It is like the perfume of a rose: you can smell it and that is all.
W. Somerset Maugham on beauty

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

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

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

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

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

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 on death

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

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.
W. Somerset Maugham on freedom

Any nation that thinks more of its ease and comfort than its freedom will soon lose its freedom and the ironical thing about it is that it will lose its ease and comfort too.
W. Somerset Maugham on freedom

There are two good things in life - freedom of thought and freedom of action.
W. Somerset Maugham on freedom

When you choose your friends, don't be short-changed by choosing personality over character.
W. Somerset Maugham on friendship

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

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