“Simplicity and naturalness are the truest marks of distinction.”
W. Somerset Maugham“The only important thing in a book is the meaning that it has for you.”
W. Somerset Maugham“Marriage is a very good thing, but I think it’s a mistake to make a habit of it.”
W. Somerset Maugham“How strange was the relation between parents and children! When they were small the parents doted on them, passed through agonies of apprehension at each childish ailment, and the children clung to their parents with love and adoration; a few years passed, the children grew up, and persons not of their kin were more important to their happiness than father or mother. Indifference displaced the blind and instinctive love of the past. Their meetings were a source of boredom and irritation. Distracted once at the thought of a month's separation they were able now to look forward with equanimity to being parted for years.”
W. Somerset Maugham, The Painted Veil“The most difficult thing for a wise woman to do is to pretend to be a foolish one.”
W. Somerset Maugham, Mrs Craddock“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. ”
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.”
W. Somerset Maugham“Like all weak men he laid an exaggerated stress on not changing one's mind.”
W. Somerset Maugham“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.”
W. Somerset Maugham“Money is the string with which a sardonic destiny directs the motions of its puppets.”
W. Somerset Maugham