Quotessence
Home / Books / The Essential W. Somerset Maugham Collection

The Essential W. Somerset Maugham Collection

Book by W. Somerset Maugham · 20 quotes · Human Bondage, Bondage, People

Filter quotes by topic

AllHuman BondageBondagePeopleSometimesKnowsMenWorldFeelsHardHeartIfsLittlesSoulThinkingTormentAcceptanceAcceptingActiveAdventureAll Things

The Essential W. Somerset Maugham Collection Quotes

“Why should you think that beauty, which is the most precious thing in the world, lies like a stone on the beach for the careless passer-by to pick up idly? Beauty is something wonderful and strange that the artist fashions out of the chaos of the world in the torment of his soul. And when he has made it, it is not given to all to know it. To recognize it you must repeat the adventure of the artist. It is a melody that he sings to you, and to hear it again in your own heart you want knowledge and sensitiveness and imagination.”

ThinkingKnowsWorldWantShouldHeartMadeSoulLyingArtistGivenImaginationWonderfulFashionStrangeAdventurePicksStonesChaosMade ItBeachRepeatsMelodyTormentCarelessPrecious Things
Book:The Essential W. Somerset Maugham Collection
Create image

“This love was a torment, and he resented bitterly the subjugation in which it held him; he was a prisoner and he longed for freedom. Sometimes he awoke in the morning and felt nothing; his soul leaped, for he thought he was free; he loved no longer; but in a little while, as he grew wide awake, the pain settled in his heart, and he knew that he was not cured yet.”

HeartLittlesSoulSometimesPainFeltMorningGrewWideAwakePrisonerTormentSubjugationWide Awake
Book:The Essential W. Somerset Maugham Collection
Create image

“The world is hard and cruel. We are here none knows why, and we go none knows whither. We must be very humble. We must see the beauty of quietness. We must go through life so inconspicuously that Fate does not notice us. And let us seek the love of simple, ignorant people. Their ignorance is better than all our knowledge. Let us be silent, content in our little corner, meek and gentle like them. That is the wisdom of life.”

PeopleKnowsWorldLittlesDoeHardSimpleFateIgnoranceSilentCornersHumbleIgnorantGentleMeekQuietnessLife WisdomIgnorant People
Book:The Essential W. Somerset Maugham Collection
Create image

“Perhaps some deep-rooted atavism urges the wanderer back to lands which his ancestors left in the dim beginnings of history. Sometimes a man hits upon a place to which he mysteriously feels that he belongs. Here is the home he sought, and he will settle amid scenes that he has never seen before, among men he has never known, as though they were familiar to him from his birth. Here at last he finds rest.”

MenFeelsSometimesHomeEarthLastsLeftKnownLandBirthSceneFamiliarSettlingUrgesAncestorRootedWanderers
Book:The Essential W. Somerset Maugham Collection
Create image

“It is an illusion that youth is happy, an illusion of those who have lost it; but the young know they are wretched for they are full of the truthless ideals which have been instilled in them, and each time they come into contact with the real, they are bruised and wounded.”

KnowsHas BeensRealTruthYoungLostYouthIllusionIdealsContactWoundedBondageWretchedBruisedHuman Bondage
Book:The Essential W. Somerset Maugham Collection
Create image