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W Somerset Maugham Quotes

Browse 10 quotes about W Somerset Maugham.

W Somerset Maugham Quotes

“I began to meditate upon the writer's life. It is full of tribulation. First he must endure poverty and the world's indifference; then, having achieved a measure of success, he must submit to a good grace of its hazards...But he has one compensation, Whenever he has anything on his mind, whether it be a harassing reflection, grief at the death of a friend, unrequited love, wounded pride, anger at the treachery of someone to whom he has shown kindness, in short any emotion or any perplexing thought, he has only to put it down in black and white, using it as a theme of a story or the decoration of an essay, to forget all about it. He is the only free man.”

“Non so. Io non capisco nulla di nulla della vita. E’ così strana…mi sento come se avessi passato tutta la mia esistenza in riva a uno stagno e d’un tratto vedessi il mare. E mi sento mancare il respiro, ma sono al tempo stesso piena di esaltazione. Io non voglio morire, voglio vivere. Comincio ad avere un nuovo coraggio…mi sembra di essere uno di quei vecchi marinai che salpavano un tempo per mari sconosciuti. Sì, la mia anima anela all’ignoto.”

“The feeling of apartness from others comes to most with puberty, but it is not always developed to such a degree as to make the difference between the individual and his fellows noticeable to the individual. It is such as he, as little conscious of himself as the bee in a hive, who are the lucky in life, for they have the best chance of happiness: their activities are shared by all, and their pleasures are only pleasures because they are enjoyed in common; you will see them on Whit-Monday dancing on Hampstead Heath, shouting at a football match, or from club windows in Pall Mall cheering a royal procession. It is because of them that man has been called a social animal.”