W. Somerset Maugham Quotes

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

Every production of an artist should be the expression of an adventure of his soul.

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.

A woman can forgive a man for the harm he does her...but she can never forgive him for the sacrifices he makes on her account.

Life wouldn`t be worth living if I worried over the future as well as the present.

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

People ask for criticism, but they only want praise.

Tao. Some of us look for the Way in opium and some in God, some of us in whiskey and some in love. It is all the same Way and it leads nowhither.

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

One cannot find peace in work or in pleasure, in the world or in a convent, but only in one`s soul.

I don`t think of the past. The only thing that matters is the everlasting present.

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.

A man marries to have a home, but also because he doesn`t want to be bothered with sex and all that sort of thing.