William Somerset Maugham quotes

“It is well known that Beauty does not look with a good grace on the timid advances of Humour.”

— William Somerset Maugham

“It seems that the creative faculty and the critical faculty cannot exist together in their highest perfection.”

— William Somerset Maugham

“Men have an extraordinarily erroneous opinion of their position in nature; and the error is ineradicable.”

— William Somerset Maugham

“The ability to quote is a serviceable substitute for wit.”

— William Somerset Maugham

“The world is quickly bored by the recital of misfortune, and willing avoids the sight of distress.”

— William Somerset Maugham

“Writing is the supreme solace.”

— William 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.”

— William Somerset Maugham

“Anyone can tell the truth, but only very few of us can make epigrams.”

— William Somerset Maugham

“Considering how foolishly people act and how pleasantly they prattle, perhaps it would be better for the world if they talked more and did less.”

— William Somerset Maugham

“Death doesn't affect the living because it has not happened yet. Death doesn't concern the dead because they have ceased to exist.”

— William Somerset Maugham

“I would sooner read a time-table or a catalogue than nothing at all. They are much more entertaining than half the novels that are written.”

— William Somerset Maugham

“It is salutary to train oneself to be no more affected by censure than by praise.”

— William Somerset Maugham

“It is unsafe to take your reader for more of a fool than he is.”

— William Somerset Maugham

“It's very hard to be a gentleman and a writer.”

— William Somerset Maugham

“Perfection has one grave defect: it is apt to be dull.”

— William Somerset Maugham

“The crown of literature is poetry.”

— William Somerset Maugham

“The most useful thing about a principle is that it can always be sacrificed to expediency.”

— William Somerset Maugham

“The writer is more concerned to know than to judge.”

— William Somerset Maugham

“The writer of prose can only step aside when the poet passes.”

— William Somerset Maugham

“We have long passed the Victorian Era when asterisks were followed after a certain interval by a baby.”

— William Somerset Maugham

“Let us develop the resources of our land, call forth its powers, build up its institutions, promote all its great interests, and see whether we also, in our day and generation, may not perform something worthy to be remembered.”

— William Somerset Maugham

“When I read a book I seem to read it with my eyes only, but now and then I come across a passage, perhaps only a phrase, which has a meaning for me, and it becomes part of me.”

— William Somerset Maugham

“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.”

— William Somerset Maugham

“Things were easier for the old novelists who saw people all of a piece. Speaking generally, their heroes were good through and through, their villains wholly bad.”

— William Somerset Maugham

“What has influenced my life more than any other single thing has been my stammer. Had I not stammered I would probably... have gone to Cambridge as my brothers did, perhaps have become a don and every now and then published a dreary book about French literature.”

— William Somerset Maugham