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W. Somerset Maugham quotes

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“Genius is an infinite capacity for taking pains.” W. Somerset Maugham, “Of Human Bondage” - 1915

“You know, there are two good things in life, freedom of thought and freedom of action.” W. Somerset Maugham, “Of Human Bondage” - 1915

“People ask you for criticism, but they only want praise.” W. Somerset Maugham, “Of Human Bondage” - 1915

“He did not care if she was heartless, vicious and vulgar, stupid and grasping, he loved her. He would rather have misery with the one than happiness with the other.” W. Somerset Maugham, “Of Human Bondage” - 1915

“Men seek but one thing in life—their pleasure.” W. Somerset Maugham, “Of Human Bondage” - 1915

“There's always one who loves and one who lets himself be loved.” W. Somerset Maugham, “Of Human Bondage” - 1915

“He saw that nothing was good and nothing was evil; things were merely adapted to an end.” W. Somerset Maugham, “Of Human Bondage” - 1915

“The bright hopes of youth had to be paid for at such a bitter price of disillusionment.” W. Somerset Maugham, “Of Human Bondage” - 1915

“There was neither good nor bad there. There were just facts. It was life.” W. Somerset Maugham, “Of Human Bondage” - 1915

“if you want men to behave well to you, you must be beastly to them; if you treat them decently they make you suffer for it.” W. Somerset Maugham, “Of Human Bondage” - 1915

“It was one of the queer things of life that you saw a person every day for months and were so intimate with him that you could not imagine existence without him; then separation came, and everything went on in the same way, and the companion who...” W. Somerset Maugham, “Of Human Bondage” - 1915

“It is one of the defects of my character that I cannot altogether dislike anyone who makes me laugh.” W. Somerset Maugham, “The Moon and Sixpence” - 1919

“The answer is meaningless unless you discover it for yourself.” W. Somerset Maugham, “Of Human Bondage” - 1915

“He found that it was easy to make a heroic gesture, but hard to abide by its results.” W. Somerset Maugham, “Of Human Bondage” - 1915

“What d'you suppose I care if I'm a gentleman or not? If I were a gentleman I shouldn't waste my time with a vulgar slut like you.” W. Somerset Maugham, “Of Human Bondage” - 1915

“He did not care upon what terms he satisfied his passion. He had even had a mad, melodramatic idea to drug her.” W. Somerset Maugham, “Of Human Bondage” - 1915

“It might be that to surrender to happiness was to accept defeat, but it was a defeat better than many victories.” W. Somerset Maugham, “Of Human Bondage” - 1915

“Like all weak men he laid an exaggerated stress on not changing one's mind.” W. Somerset Maugham, “Of Human Bondage” - 1915

“I do not confer praise or blame: I accept. I am the measure of all things. I am the centre of the world.” W. Somerset Maugham, “Of Human Bondage” - 1915

“It's no good crying over spilt milk, because all the forces of the universe were bent on spilling it.” W. Somerset Maugham, “Of Human Bondage” - 1915

“Benevolence is often very peremptory.” W. Somerset Maugham, “Of Human Bondage” - 1915

“He had heard people speak contemptuously of money: he wondered if they had ever tried to do without it.” W. Somerset Maugham, “Of Human Bondage” - 1915

“Life was not so horrible if it was meaningless, and he faced it with a strange sense of power.” W. Somerset Maugham, “Of Human Bondage” - 1915

“There is nothing so terrible as the pursuit of art by those who have no talent.” W. Somerset Maugham, “Of Human Bondage” - 1915

“When a woman loves you she's not satisfied until she possesses your soul. Because she's weak, she has a rage for domination, and nothing less will satisfy her.” W. Somerset Maugham, “The Moon and Sixpence” - 1919

“Insensibly he formed the most delightful habit in the world, the habit of reading: he did not know that thus he was providing himself with a refuge from all the distress of life; he did not know either that he was creating for himself an unreal...” W. Somerset Maugham, “Of Human Bondage” - 1915

“Women are constantly trying to commit suicide for love, but generally they take care not to succeed.” W. Somerset Maugham, “The Moon and Sixpence” - 1919

“There is no cruelty greater than a woman's to a man who loves her and whom she does not love; she has no kindness then, no tolerance even, she has only an insane irritation.” W. Somerset Maugham, “The Moon and Sixpence” - 1919

“Beauty is something wonderful and strange that the artist fashions out of the chaos of the world in the torment of his soul.” W. Somerset Maugham, “The Moon and Sixpence” - 1919

“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.” W. Somerset Maugham, “The Moon and Sixpence” - 1919

“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.” W. Somerset Maugham, “Of Human Bondage” - 1915

“the important thing was to love rather than to be loved” W. Somerset Maugham, “Of Human Bondage” - 1915

“I don't think that women ought to sit down at table with men. It ruins conversation and I'm sure it's very bad for them. It puts ideas in their heads, and women are never at ease with themselves when they have ideas.” W. Somerset Maugham, “Of Human Bondage” - 1915

“From old habit, unconsciously he thanked God that he no longer believed in Him.” W. Somerset Maugham, “Of Human Bondage” - 1915

“It is cruel to discover one's mediocrity only when it is too late. It does not improve the temper.” W. Somerset Maugham, “Of Human Bondage” - 1915

“It requires the feminine temperament to repeat the same thing three times with unabated zest.” W. Somerset Maugham, “The Moon and Sixpence” - 1919

“She had no mercy. He looked at her neck and thought how he would like to jab it with the knife he had for his muffin. He knew enough anatomy to make pretty certain of getting the carotid artery. And at the same time he wanted to cover her pale,...” W. Somerset Maugham, “Of Human Bondage” - 1915

“It is not true that suffering ennobles the character; happiness does that sometimes, but suffering, for the most part, makes men petty and vindictive.” W. Somerset Maugham, “The Moon and Sixpence” - 1919

“He had pondered for twenty years the problem whether he loved liquor because it made him talk or whether he loved conversation because it made him thirsty.” W. Somerset Maugham, “Of Human Bondage” - 1915

Related topics

love women life happiness men suffering praise pain good art conversation reciprocity passion madness wisdom youth mind God fate destiny

Related sources

Of Human Bondage (31)
The Moon and Sixpence (8)