W. Somerset Maugham
The world in general doesn't know what to make of originality; it is startled out of its comfortable habits of thought, and its first reaction is one of anger.Collection: Anger
Marriage is a very good thing, but I think it's a mistake to make a habit out of it.Collection: Marriage
At a dinner party one should eat wisely but not too well, and talk well but not too wisely.Collection: New
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.Collection: Anniversary
If you want to eat well in England, eat three breakfasts.Collection: Food
Death is a very dull, dreary affair, and my advice to you is to have nothing whatsoever to do with it.Collection: Death
It's a funny thing about life; if you refuse to accept anything but the best, you very often get it.Collection: Funny
It is not true that suffering ennobles the character; happiness does that sometimes, but suffering for the most part, makes men petty and vindictive.Collection: Happiness
I can imagine no more comfortable frame of mind for the conduct of life than a humorous resignation.Collection: Humor
Impropriety is the soul of wit.Collection: Humor
Every production of an artist should be the expression of an adventure of his soul.Collection: Art
Any nation that thinks more of its ease and comfort than its freedom will soon lose its freedom; and the ironical thing about it is that it will lose its ease and comfort too.Collection: Freedom
Only a mediocre person is always at his best.Collection: Best
Money is like a sixth sense without which you cannot make a complete use of the other five.Collection: Money
It is not wealth one asks for, but just enough to preserve one's dignity, to work unhampered, to be generous, frank and independent.Collection: Independence
If you don't change your beliefs, your life will be like this forever. Is that good news?Collection: Change
You are not angry with people when you laugh at them. Humor teaches tolerance.Collection: Humor
If a nation values anything more than freedom, it will lose its freedom, and the irony of it is that if it is comfort or money that it values more, it will lose that too.Collection: Money
Old age has its pleasures, which, though different, are not less than the pleasures of youth.Collection: Age
Love is only a dirty trick played on us to achieve continuation of the species.Collection: Love
Beauty is an ecstasy; it is as simple as hunger. There is really nothing to be said about it. It is like the perfume of a rose: you can smell it and that is all.Collection: Beauty
When you choose your friends, don't be short-changed by choosing personality over character.Collection: Friendship
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.Collection: Art
The crown of literature is poetry.Collection: Poetry
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.Collection: Success
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.Collection: Age
Death doesn't affect the living because it has not happened yet. Death doesn't concern the dead because they have ceased to exist.Collection: Death
The love that lasts longest is the love that is never returned.Collection: Love
Money is the string with which a sardonic destiny directs the motions of its puppets.Collection: Money
Writing is the supreme solace.Collection: Communication
Imagination grows by exercise, and contrary to common belief, is more powerful in the mature than in the young.Collection: Imagination
Tradition is a guide and not a jailer.
Excess on occasion is exhilarating. It prevents moderation from acquiring the deadening effect of a habit.
The essence of the beautiful is unity in variety.
There are three rules for writing a novel. Unfortunately, no one knows what they are.
My own belief is that there is hardly anyone whose sexual life, if it were broadcast, would not fill the world at large with surprise and horror.
Perfection has one grave defect: it is apt to be dull.
You can do anything in this world if you are prepared to take the consequences.
People ask for criticism, but they only want praise.
Anyone can tell the truth, but only very few of us can make epigrams.
The ability to quote is a serviceable substitute for wit.
An unfortunate thing about this world is that the good habits are much easier to give up than the bad ones.
Tolerance is another word for indifference.
I'll give you my opinion of the human race in a nutshell... their heart's in the right place, but their head is a thoroughly inefficient organ.
It is salutary to train oneself to be no more affected by censure than by praise.
It's very hard to be a gentleman and a writer.
It's no good trying to keep up old friendships. It's painful for both sides. The fact is, one grows out of people, and the only thing is to face it.
In the country the darkness of night is friendly and familiar, but in a city, with its blaze of lights, it is unnatural, hostile and menacing. It is like a monstrous vulture that hovers, biding its time.
There are two good things in life - freedom of thought and freedom of action.
It wasn't until late in life that I discovered how easy it is to say, 'I don't know.'