WSW. Somerset Maugham

223 collected words

W. Somerset Maugham

Life dates: 1874 AD — 1965 AD

Name supplied in the contributor-provided quotation collection. Basic attribution label; identity, lifetime and quotation authenticity have not been independently verified.

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Quotations and sayings

01c. 1919 AD

Tradition is a guide and not a jailer.

W. Somerset Maugham / quote

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02c. 1919 AD

The greatest tragedy of life is not that men perish but that they cease to love.

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03c. 1919 AD

American women expect to find in their husbands a perfection that English women only hope to find in their butlers.

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04c. 1919 AD

It is dangerous to let the public behind the scenes. They are easily disillusioned and then they are angry with you for it was the illusion they loved.

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05c. 1919 AD

Life isn't long enough for love and art.

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06c. 1919 AD

Money is like a sixth sense and you can't make use of the other five without it.

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07c. 1919 AD

Love is only a dirty trick played on us to achieve continuation of the species.

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08c. 1919 AD

A Unitarian very earnestly disbelieves what everyone else believes.

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09c. 1919 AD

Simplicity and naturalness are the truest marks of distinction.

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10c. 1919 AD

The common idea that success spoils people by making them vain egotistic and self-complacent is erroneous on the contrary it makes them for the most part humble tolerant and kind. Failure makes people cruel and bitter.

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11c. 1919 AD

The passing moment is all we can be sure of it is only common sense to extract its utmost value from it.

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12c. 1919 AD

I can imagine no more comfortable frame of mind for the conduct of life than a humorous resignation.

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13c. 1919 AD

Impropriety is the soul of wit.

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14c. 1919 AD

You are not angry with people when you laugh at them. Humor teaches tolerance.

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15c. 1919 AD

We are not the same persons this year as last; nor are those we love. It is a happy chance if we, changing, continue to love a changed person.

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16c. 1919 AD

The artist produces for the liberation of his soul. It is his nature to create as it is the nature of water to run down the hill.

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17c. 1919 AD

Death is a very dull, dreary affair, and my advice to you is to have nothing whatsoever to do with it.

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18c. 1919 AD

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

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19c. 1919 AD

What makes old age hard to bear is not the failing of one's faculties, mental and physical, but the burden of one's memories.

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20c. 1919 AD

It is not true that suffering ennobles the character; happiness does that sometimes, but suffering for the most part, makes men petty and vindictive.

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21c. 1919 AD

It is not wealth one asks for, but just enough to preserve one's dignity, to work unhampered, to be generous, frank and independent.

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22c. 1919 AD

If you want to eat well in England, eat three breakfasts.

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23c. 1919 AD

It's a funny thing about life; if you refuse to accept anything but the best, you very often get it.

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24c. 1919 AD

At a dinner party one should eat wisely but not too well, and talk well but not too wisely.

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