W. Somerset Maugham quotes - page 5

There is a sort of man who pays no attention to his good actions, but is tormented by his bad ones. This is the type that most often writes about himself. (W. Somerset Maugham)
The tragedy of love is indifference. View quote
W. Somerset Maugham
I have always been convinced that if a woman once made up her mind to marry a man nothing but instant flight could save him. View quote
W. Somerset Maugham
Do you know that conversation is one of the greatest pleasures in life? But it wants leisure. View quote
W. Somerset Maugham
There are men whose sense of humour is so ill developed that they still bear a grudge against Copernicus because he dethroned them from the central position in the universe. They feel it a personal affront that they can no longer consider themselves the pivot upon which turns the whole of created things. View quote
W. Somerset Maugham
There is no object to life. To nature nothing matters but the continuation of the species. View quote
W. Somerset Maugham
You are not angry with people when you laugh at them. Humour teaches tolerance, and the humorist, with a smile and perhaps a sigh, is more likely to shrug his shoulders than to condemn. View quote
W. Somerset Maugham
Conscience is the guardian in the individual of the rules which the community has evolved for its own preservation. View quote
W. Somerset Maugham
I do not believe they are right who say that the defects of famous men should be ignored. I think it is better that we should know them. Then, though we are conscious of having faults as glaring as theirs, we can believe that that is no hindrance to our achieving also something of their virtues. View quote
W. Somerset Maugham
...the future will one day be the present and will seem as unimportant as the present does now. View quote
W. Somerset Maugham
She plunged into a sea of platitudes, and with the powerful breast stroke of a channel swimmer made her confident way towards the white cliffs of the obvious. (W. Somerset Maugham)
A soul is a troublesome possession, and when man developed it he lost the Garden of Eden. View quote
W. Somerset Maugham
If forty million people say a foolish thing it does not become a wise one, but the wise man is foolish to give them the lie. View quote
W. Somerset Maugham
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. View quote
W. Somerset Maugham
She gathered herself together. No one could describe the scorn of her expression or the contemptuous hatred she put into her answer. "You men! You filthy dirty pigs! You're all the same, all of you. Pigs! Pigs!" View quote
W. Somerset Maugham
I was astonished to see him in Baghdad, for I had an appointment with him tonight in Samarra. View quote
W. Somerset Maugham
A woman will always sacrifice herself if you give her the opportunity. It is her favourite form of self indulgence. View quote
W. Somerset Maugham
Religion is...a conspiracy of...priests to gain control over the people... View quote
W. Somerset Maugham
Things don't get any easier by putting them off. View quote
W. Somerset Maugham
You bloody fool, you've killed the wrong man. View quote
W. Somerset Maugham
It may be that if I lead the life I've planned for myself it may affect others; the effect may be no greater than the ripple caused by a stone thrown in a pond, but one ripple causes another. (W. Somerset Maugham)
There is nothing so degrading as the constant anxiety about one's means of livelihood...Money is like a sixth sense without which you cannot make a complete use of the other five. View quote
W. Somerset Maugham
We do not write because we want to; we write because we have to. View quote
W. Somerset Maugham
The dead look so terribly dead when they're dead. View quote
W. Somerset Maugham
The fact that a great many people believe something is no guarantee of its truth. View quote
W. Somerset Maugham