W. Somerset Maugham quotes - page 2

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)
Men seek but one thing in life - their pleasure. View quote
W. Somerset Maugham
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. View quote
W. Somerset Maugham
Follow your inclinations with due regard to the policeman round the corner. View quote
W. Somerset Maugham
He had heard people speak contemptuously of money he wondered if they had ever tried to do without it. View quote
W. Somerset Maugham
Old age has its pleasures, which, though different, are not less than the pleasures of youth. View quote
W. Somerset Maugham
You can do anything in this world if you are prepared to take the consequences. View quote
W. Somerset Maugham
Men have an extraordinarily erroneous opinion of their position in nature; and the error is ineradicable. View quote
W. Somerset Maugham
There is no explanation for evil. It must be looked upon as a necessary part of the order of the universe. To ignore it is childish, to bewail it senseless. View quote
W. Somerset Maugham
Habits in writing as in life are only useful if they are broken as soon as they cease to be advantageous. View quote
W. Somerset Maugham
In the country the darkness of night is friendly and familiar, but in a city, with its blaze of lights, it is unnatural, hostile and menacing. It is like a monstrous vulture that hovers, biding its time. (W. Somerset Maugham)
We have long passed the Victorian Era when asterisks were followed after a certain interval by a baby. View quote
W. Somerset Maugham
It is salutary to train oneself to be no more affected by censure than by praise. View quote
W. Somerset Maugham
Impropriety is the soul of wit. View quote
W. Somerset Maugham
Money is the string with which a sardonic destiny directs the motions of its puppets. View quote
W. Somerset Maugham
I made up my mind long ago that life was too short to do anything for myself that I could pay others to do for me. View quote
W. Somerset Maugham
Old age is ready to undertake tasks that youth shirked because they would take too long. View quote
W. Somerset Maugham
The writer is more concerned to know than to judge. View quote
W. Somerset Maugham
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. View quote
W. Somerset Maugham
It is unsafe to take your reader for more of a fool than he is. View quote
W. Somerset Maugham
The writer of prose can only step aside when the poet passes. (W. Somerset Maugham)
Considering how foolishly people act and how pleasantly they prattle, perhaps it would be better for the world if they talked more and did less. View quote
W. Somerset Maugham
Anyone can tell the truth, but only very few of us can make epigrams. View quote
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. View quote
W. Somerset Maugham
Imagination grows by exercise, and contrary to common belief, is more powerful in the mature than in the young. View quote
W. Somerset Maugham