W. Somerset Maugham: Trending quotes

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W. Somerset Maugham: 316 quotes19 likes

“Life isn't long enough for love and art.”

W. Somerset Maugham book The Moon and Sixpence

Source: The Moon and Sixpence (1919), Ch. 21, p. 80

“We must go through life so inconspicuously that Fate does not notice us.”

W. Somerset Maugham book The Moon and Sixpence

Source: The Moon and Sixpence (1919), Ch. 38, p. 129

“Now it is a funny thing about life; if you refuse to accept anything but the best you very often get it…”

W. Somerset Maugham

The Mixture As Before (1940) "The Treasure"
Short Stories

“Old age has its pleasures, which, though different, are not less than the pleasures of youth.”

W. Somerset Maugham book The Summing Up

Source: The Summing Up (1938), p. 290

“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 book Of Human Bondage

Source: Of Human Bondage (1915), Ch. 45

“People ask you for criticism, but they only want praise.”

W. Somerset Maugham book Of Human Bondage

Source: Of Human Bondage (1915), Ch. 50

“…you know what the critics are. If you tell the truth they only say you're cynical and it does an author no good to get a reputation for cynicism.”

W. Somerset Maugham

Source: Cakes and Ale: Or, The Skeleton in the Cupboard (1930), p. 137

“You can do anything in this world if you are prepared to take the consequences.”

W. Somerset Maugham The Circle

The Circle
Plays

“It was such a lovely day I thought it was a pity to get up.”

W. Somerset Maugham

Our Betters (1923)
Plays

“Sometimes people carry to such perfection the mask they have assumed that in due course they actually become the person they seem.”

W. Somerset Maugham book The Moon and Sixpence

Source: The Moon and Sixpence (1919), Ch. 42, p. 147

“There is only one thing about which I am certain, and this is that there is very little about which one can be certain.”

W. Somerset Maugham book The Summing Up

Source: The Summing Up (1938), Ch. 5, p. 12 http://books.google.com/books?id=2hNbAAAAMAAJ&q=%22There+is+only+one+thing+about+which+I+am+certain+and+this+is%22&pg=PA12#v=onepage- 13 http://books.google.com/books?id=2hNbAAAAMAAJ&q=%22that+there+is+very+little+about+which+one+can+be+certain%22&pg=PA13#v=onepage

“He was the kind of man with whom one would have hesitated to pass a lonely evening, but with whom one might cheerfully have looked forward to spending six months.”

W. Somerset Maugham book The Razor's Edge

The Razor's Edge (1943)

“Religion is…a conspiracy of…priests to gain control over the people…”

W. Somerset Maugham book The Razor's Edge

The Razor's Edge (1943)

“Men have an extraordinarily erroneous opinion of their position in nature; and the error is ineradicable.”

W. Somerset Maugham

"1896", p. 20
A Writer's Notebook (1946)

“The Riviera isn't only a sunny place for shady people.”

W. Somerset Maugham

Strictly Personal, p. 156 (Doubleday, Doran and co., inc., 1941)

“The poignancy which all beauty has.”

W. Somerset Maugham book The Moon and Sixpence

Source: The Moon and Sixpence (1919), Ch. 23, p. 87

“There is a sort of man who pays no attention to his good actions, but is tormented by his bad ones. This is the type that most often writes about himself.”

W. Somerset Maugham book The Summing Up

Ch. 4, p. 11 http://books.google.com/books?id=Ma3RAAAAMAAJ&amp;q=%22There+is+a+sort+of+man+who+pays+no+attention+to+his+good+actions+but+is+tormented+by+his+bad+ones+this+is+the+type+that+most+often+writes+about+himself%22&amp;pg=PA11#v=onepage <br class="br">The Summing Up (1938)

“Almost all the people who have had most effect on me I seem to have met by chance.”

W. Somerset Maugham book The Razor's Edge

The Razor's Edge (1943)