W. Somerset Maugham quotes - page 6

We must go through life so inconspicuously that Fate does not notice us. (W. Somerset Maugham)
He was the kind of man with whom one would have hesitated to pass a lonely evening, but with whom one might cheerfully have looked forward to spending six months. View quote
W. Somerset Maugham
In art honesty is not only the best but the only policy. View quote
W. Somerset Maugham
The poignancy which all beauty has. View quote
W. Somerset Maugham
Almost all the people who have had most effect on me I seem to have met by chance. View quote
W. Somerset Maugham
Tahiti is very far away, and I knew that I should never see it again. A chapter of my life was closed, and I felt a little nearer to inevitable death. View quote
W. Somerset Maugham
Nothing in the world is permanent, and we're foolish when we ask anything to last, but surely we're still more foolish not to take delight in it while we have it. View quote
W. Somerset Maugham
I sometimes think,' said the Eternal, 'that the stars never shine more brightly than when reflected in the muddy waters of a wayside ditch. View quote
W. Somerset Maugham
Women are always glad to listen when you discourse upon love... View quote
W. Somerset Maugham
He made one laugh sometimes by speaking the truth, but this is a form of humour which gains its force only by its unusualness; it would cease to amuse if it were commonly practised. View quote
W. Somerset Maugham
The modern clergyman has acquired in his study of the science which I believe is called exegesis an astonishing facility for explaining things away. (W. Somerset Maugham)
I held my breath, for to me there is nothing more awe-inspiring than when a man discovers to you the nakedness of his soul. View quote
W. Somerset Maugham
I had not yet learnt how contradictory is human nature; I did not know how much pose there is in the sincere, how much baseness in the noble, or how much goodness in the reprobate. View quote
W. Somerset Maugham
I thought I should be a fool to allow work to interfere with a delight in the passing moment that I might never enjoy again so fully. View quote
W. Somerset Maugham
He knew that women appreciated neither irony nor sarcasm, but simple jokes and funny stories. He was amply provided with both. View quote
W. Somerset Maugham
I did not then know the besetting sin of woman, the passion to discuss her private affairs with anyone who is willing to listen. View quote
W. Somerset Maugham
The sad Don Quixote of a worthless purpose. View quote
W. Somerset Maugham
But who can fathom the subtleties of the human heart? Certainly not those who expect from it only decorous sentiments and normal emotions. View quote
W. Somerset Maugham
She had a very agreeable smile; it did not light up her face suddenly, but seemed rather to suffuse it by degrees with charm. It hesitated for a moment about her lips and then slowly travelled to those great shining eyes of hers and there softly lingered. View quote
W. Somerset Maugham
He loved her so passionately he wanted her to be one soul and one body with him; and he was conscious that here, with those deep roots attaching her to the native life, she would always keep something from him. View quote
W. Somerset Maugham
By the time I was twenty-four I had constructed a complete system of philosophy. It rested on two principles: The Relativity of Things and The Circumferentiality of Man. I have since discovered that the first was not a very original discovery. It may be that the other was profound, but though I have racked my brains I cannot for the life of me remember what it was. (W. Somerset Maugham)
I reflected, while I chatted with the woman I had been asked to ‘take in', that civilized man practises a strange ingenuity in wasting on tedious exercises the brief span of his life. View quote
W. Somerset Maugham
To eat well in England, you should have a breakfast three times a day. View quote
W. Somerset Maugham
He found himself now in the agreeable situation of being able to do what was best for others and at the same time what was convenient to himself. View quote
W. Somerset Maugham
He had doubts about the utility of examination on subjects which had been crammed for the occasion. He wanted common sense. View quote
W. Somerset Maugham