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W. Somerset Maugham

W. Somerset Maugham Quotes

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Famous W. Somerset Maugham Quotes

“To bear failure with courage is the best proof of character that anyone can give... You will find that people forget the failures of others very quickly.... My last piece of advice is not to let anyone see your mortification, but whatever you fancy people are saying about you to go on with your ordinary life as though nothing unpleasant had happened to you.”

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Author:W. Somerset Maugham
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“But there are people who take salt with their coffee. They say it gives a tang, a savour, which is peculiar and fascinating. In the same way there are certain places, surrounded by a halo of romance, to which the inevitable disillusionment you experience on seeing them gives a singular spice. You had expected something wholly beautiful and you get an impression which is infinitely more complicated than any that beauty can give you. It is the weakness in the character of a great man which may make him less admirable but certainly more interesting. Nothing had prepared me for Honolulu.”

PeopleMenWayGivingMayCharacterBeautifulRomanceCertainInterestingSeeingWeaknessPreparedComplicatedExpectedCoffeeImpressionInevitableGreat MenFascinatingPeculiarSaltSpicesAdmirableDisillusionmentHalosSavourHonolulu
Author:W. Somerset Maugham
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“I did not believe him capable of love. That is an emotion in which tenderness is an essential part, but Strickland had no tenderness either for himself or for others; there is in love a sense of weakness, a desire to protect, an eagerness to do good and to give pleasure--if not unselfishness, at all events a selfishness which marvellously conceals itself; it has in it a certain diffidence.”

IfsGivingBelieveDesireCertainPleasureEmotionEventsProtectEssentialsCapableWeaknessSelfishnessTendernessEagernessUnselfishnessDiffidence
Book:The Moon and Sixpence
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“For men, as a rule, love is but an episode which takes place among the other affairs of the day, and the emphasis laid on it in novels gives it an importance which is untrue to life. There are few men to whom it is the most important thing in the world, and they are not the very interesting ones; even women, with whom the subject is of paramount interest, have a contempt for them.”

MenWorldGivingImportantInterestLove IsInterestingNovelSubjectsImportanceImportant ThingsAffairContemptEpisodesEmphasisVery InterestingUntrueParamount
Book:The Moon and Sixpence
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“The Americans, who are the most efficient people on the earth, have carried [phrase-making] to such a height of perfection and have invented so wide a range of pithy and hackneyed phrases that they can carry on an amusing and animated conversation without giving a moment’s reflection to what they are saying and so leave their minds free to consider the more important matters of big business and fornication.”

PeopleGivingMindImportantMatterMomentsBigsEarthFunnyConversationReflectionPerfectionWideRangeHeightPhrasesEfficientAnimatedAmusingBig BusinessMind FreePithy
Author:W. Somerset Maugham
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“Vaguely, as when you are studying a foreign language and read a page which at first you can make nothing of, till a word or a sentence gives you a clue; and on a sudden suspicion, as it were, of the sense flashes across your troubled wits, vaguely she gained an inkling into the workings of Walter's mind. It was like a dark and ominous landscape seen by a flash of lightning and in a moment hidden again by the night. She shuddered at what she saw.”

GivingMindFirstsMomentsNightLanguageDarkStudySawsPagesSentencesWitLandscapeFlashSuspicionLightningClueForeign LanguageOminous
Author:W. Somerset Maugham
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“It is pleasure that lurks in the practice of every one of your virtues. Man performs actions because they are good for him, and when they are good for other people as well they are thought virtuous: if he finds pleasure in helping others he is benevolent; if he finds pleasure in working for society he is public-spirited; but it is for your private pleasure that you give twopence to a beggar as much as it is for my private pleasure that I drink another whiskey and soda. I, less of a humbug than you, neither applaud myself for my pleasure nor demand your admiration.”

PeopleIfsMenGivingWellsHelpingActionPleasurePracticeVirtueDrinkDemandHelping OthersAdmirationVirtuousBeggarWhiskeyBenevolentSpiritedSodaHumbugHuman Bondage
Author:W. Somerset Maugham
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“...I couldn't but surmise that the devil, looking at the cruel wars that Christianity has occasioned, the persecutions, the tortures Christian has inflicted on Christian, the unkindness, the hypocracy, the intolerance, must consider the balance sheet with complacency. And when he remembers that it has laid upon mankind the bitter burden of the sense of sin that has darkened the beauty of the starry night and cast a baleful shadow on the passing plesures of a world to be enjoyed, he must chuckle as he murmurs: give the devil his due.”

WorldGivingWarChristianRememberNightSinChristianityMankindBalanceDevilShadowCastsBurdenDuesPassingPassingsBitterEnjoyedTortureIntoleranceAgnosticSheetsPersecutionComplacencyUnkindnessChucklesBalance SheetsStarry Night
Book:The Razor's Edge
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“Marco Polo tells the tale of The Old Man in the Mountains and how he recruits new members to his Band of Assassins by means of drugs, beautiful women, lush gardens, and religious promises. The unfortunate thing about this world is that the good habits are much easier to give up than the bad ones.”

MenWorldGivingMeanBeautifulReligionReligiousThis WorldHabitEasierPromiseDrugBandMountainMembersGiving UpGardenTalesOld ManUnfortunateBeautiful WomenAssassinsMarcosRecruitGood HabitsLushPoloUnfortunate ThingsMarco Polo
Author:W. Somerset Maugham
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“I travel because I like to move from place to place, I enjoy the sense of freedom it gives me, it pleases me to be rid of ties, responsibilities, duties, I like the unknown; I meet odd people who amuse me for a moment and sometimes suggest a theme for a composition; I am often tired of myself and I have a notion that by travel I can add to my personality and so change myself a little. I do not bring back from the journey quite the same self that I took”

PeopleGivingLittlesI CanSelfSometimesMomentsMovingEnjoyChangeResponsibilityJourneyDutyPersonalityPleaseGive MeTiredAddNotionOddTiesThemeCompositionPlease Me
Book:the Gentleman in the Parlour
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“Truth is not only stranger than fiction, it is more telling. To know that a thing actually happened gives it a poignancy, touches a chord, which a piece of acknowledged fiction misses. It is to touch this chord that some authors have done everything they could to give you the impression that they are telling the plain truth.”

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Author:W. Somerset Maugham
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