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W. Somerset Maugham

W. Somerset Maugham Quotes

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Famous W. Somerset Maugham Quotes

“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 want a girl because I want to bring her up so that she shan't make the mistakes I've made. When I look back upon the girl I was I hate myself. But I never had a chance. I'm going to bring up my daughter so that she's free and can stand on her own feet. I´m not going to bring a child into the world, and love her, and bring her up, just so that some man may want to sleep with her so much that he's willing to provide her with board and lodging for the rest of her life.”

MenWorldWantLooksMayChildrenMadeHateGirlChanceSleepMistakeFeetWillingDaughterAnd LoveI HateBoardsMy DaughterWant To SleepHate MyselfI Hate MyselfWorld And LoveI Want A Girl
Book:The Painted Veil
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“When I was young I had an elderly friend who used often to ask me to stay with him in the country. He was a religious man and he read prayers to the assembled household every morning. But he had crossed out in pencil all the passages that praised God. He said that there was nothing so vulgar as to praise people to their faces and, himself a gentleman, he could not believe that God was so ungentlemanly as to like it.”

PeopleMenBelieveSaidCountryFacesYoungUsedAsksBeliefReligiousPrayerMorningPraiseAsk MeGentlemanPassagesHouseholdEvery MorningVulgarPencilsElderly
Book:Mr. Maugham Himself
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“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
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“I was a stray acquaintance whom he had never seem before and would never see again, a wandered for a moment through his monotonous life, and some starved impulse left him to lay bare his soul. I have in this way learned more about men in a night than I could if I had known them for 10 years. If you are interested in human nature, it is one of the greatest pleasures of travel.”

IfsMenWayLifeYearsHumansSoulMomentsSeemsNightLeftPleasureKnownHuman NatureLaysImpulseAcquaintanceMonotonousGreatest PleasuresMonotonous Life
Author:W. Somerset Maugham
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“I am told that today rather more than 60 per cent of the men who go to university go on a Government grant. This is a new class that has entered upon the scene. It is the white-collar proletariat. They do not go to university to acquire culture but to get a job, and when they have got one, scamp it. They have no manners and are woefully unable to deal with any social predicament. Their idea of a celebration is to go to a public house and drink six beers. They are mean, malicious and envious . They are scum.”

MenMeanIdeasGovernmentTodayJobsCultureHouseSocialWhiteDealsClassCollegeHe ManGoes OnDrinkSceneSixUniversityMannersBeerAcquireGrantsCelebrationCentsEnviousCollarsProletariatMaliciousPredicamentsScumWhite CollarNew Class
Author:W. Somerset Maugham
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“He is not famous. It may be that he never will be. It may be that when his life at last comes to an end he will leave no more trace of his sojourn on earth than a stone thrown into a river leaves on the surface of the water. But it may be that the way of life that he has chosen for himself and the peculiar strength and sweetness of his character may have an ever-growing influence over his fellow men so that, long after his death perhaps, it may be realized that there lived in this age a very remarkable creature.”

MenWayMayLongEndsCharacterAgeEarthLastsWaterGrowingInfluenceCreaturesRiversStonesFellowsSurfaceChosenThrownRemarkablePeculiarSweetnessFellow Man
Author:W. Somerset Maugham
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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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“On the earth, satellite of a star speeding through space, living things had arisen under the influence of conditions which were part of the planet's history; and as there had been a beginning of life upon it, so, under the influence of other conditions, there would be an end: man, no more significant than other forms of life, had come not as the climax of creation but as a physical reaction to the environment.”

MenEndsWould BeEarthFormStarsSpaceEnvironmentInfluenceConditionsCreationPlanetsSignificantReactionsLiving ThingsSatellitesClimaxSpeedingBeginning Of Life
Author:W. Somerset Maugham
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“You Europeans know nothing about America. Because we amass large fortunes you think we care for nothing but money. We are nothing for it; the moment we have it we spend it, sometimes well, sometimes ill, but we spend it. Money is nothing to us; it's merely the symbol of success. We are the greatest idealists in the world; I happen to think that we've set our ideal on the wrong objects; I happen to think that the greatest ideal man can set before himself is self-perfection.”

ThinkingKnowsMenWorldWellsSelfSometimesMomentsHappensCareAmericaObjectsIdealsPerfectionFortuneIllSymbolsIdealistIdeal ManSelf Perfection
Author:W. Somerset Maugham
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