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William Somerset Maugham quotes (36) Imagination grows by exercise and contrary to common belief is more powerful in the mature than in the young. William Somerset Maugham Category: Illusions Commonsense and good nature will do a lot to make the pilgrimage of life not too difficult. William Somerset Maugham Category: Common When I was young I was amazed at Plutarchs statement that the elder Cato began at the age of eighty to learn Greek. I am amazed no longer. Old age is ready to undertake tasks that youth shirked because they would take too long. William Somerset Maugham Category: Age You are not angry with people when you laugh at them. Humor teaches them tolerance. William Somerset Maugham Category: Humor 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. William Somerset Maugham Category: Change She had a pretty gift for quotation which is a serviceable substitute for wit. William Somerset Maugham Category: Quotations Money is like a sixth sense - and you cant make use of the other five without it. William Somerset Maugham Category: Money There are three rules for writing a novel. Unfortunately no one knows what they are. William Somerset Maugham Category: Writing There is no explanation for evil. It must be looked upon as a necessary part of the order of the universe. To ignore it is childish to bewail it senseless. William Somerset Maugham Category: Evil It is not true that suffering ennobles the character; happiness does that sometimes but suffering for the most part makes men petty and vindictive. William Somerset Maugham Category: Pain A woman will always sacrifice herself if you give her the opportunity. It is her favourite form of self-indulgence. William Somerset Maugham Category: Woe The unfortunate thing about this world is that good habits are so much easier to give up than bad ones. William Somerset Maugham Category: Habit You know of course that the Tasmanians who never committed adultery are now extinct. William Somerset Maugham Category: Adultery Man has always sacrificed truth to his vanity comfort and advantage. He lives by make-believe. William Somerset Maugham Category: Belief You cant learn too soon that the most useful thing about a principle is that it can always be sacrificed to expediency. William Somerset Maugham Category: Expedience People ask you for criticism but they only want praise. William Somerset Maugham Category: Advice Death is a very dull dreary affair and my advice to you is to have nothing whatsoever to do with it. William Somerset Maugham Category: Death 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. William Somerset Maugham Category: Beauty Tradition is a guide and not a jailer. William Somerset Maugham Category: Tradition 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. William Somerset Maugham Category: Comfort What makes old age hard to bear is not the failing of ones faculties mental and physical but the burden of ones memories. William Somerset Maugham Category: Memory Culture is not just an ornament; it is the expression of a nations character and at the same time it is a powerful instrument to mould character. The end of culture is right living. William Somerset Maugham Category: Culture There is only one thing about which I am certain and this is that there is very little about which one can be certain. William Somerset Maugham Category: Certainty Do you know that conversation is one of the greatest pleasures in life? But it wants leisure. William Somerset Maugham Category: Unsorted Reserve is an artificial quality that is developed in most of us but as the result of innumerable rebuffs. William Somerset Maugham Category: Shy There are two good things in life - freedom of thought and freedom of action. William Somerset Maugham Category: Freedom The great tragedy of life is not that men perish But that they cease to love. William Somerset Maugham Category: Love There is hardly anyone whose sexual life if it were broadcast would not fill the world at large with surprise and horror. William Somerset Maugham Category: Sex Genius is talent provided with ideals. William Somerset Maugham Category: Genius Excess on occasion is exhilarating. It prevents moderation from acquiring the deadening effect of a habit. William Somerset Maugham Category: Excess 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. William Somerset Maugham Category: Factory Like all weak men he laid an exaggerated stress on not changing one's mind. William Somerset Maugham Category: Exaggeration It was such a lovely day I thought it a pity to get up. William Somerset Maugham Category: Day A man marries to have a home but also because he doesnt want to be bothered with sex and all that sort of thing. William Somerset Maugham Category: Marriage Perfection - Nothing more than a complete adaptation to the environment; but the environment is constantly changing so perfection can never be more than transitory. William Somerset Maugham Category: Perfection Only a mediocre person is always at his best. William Somerset Maugham Category: Best |
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