48 Quotes By W. Somerset Maugham


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 on great

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

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.
W. Somerset Maugham on home

You are not angry with people when you laugh at them. Humor teaches tolerance.
W. Somerset Maugham on humor

Imagination grows by exercise, and contrary to common belief, is more powerful in the mature than in the young.
W. Somerset Maugham on imagination

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 life

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

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 love

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

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.
W. Somerset Maugham on marriage

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

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

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 money

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

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

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 on nature

Men have an extraordinarily erroneous opinion of their position in nature and the error is ineradicable.
W. Somerset Maugham on nature

The crown of literature is poetry.
W. Somerset Maugham on poetry

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 on success

You know what the critics are. If you tell the truth they only say you're cynical and it does an author no good to get a reputation for cynicism.
W. Somerset Maugham on truth