William Somerset Maugham (1874 – 1965)
English playwright, novelist, and short story writer; often published as simply W Somerset Maugham.
There was an immeasurable distance between the quick and the dead: they did not seem to belong to the same species; and it was strange to think that but a little while before they had spoken and moved and eaten and laughed.
After all, 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.
In art honesty is not only the best but the only policy.
Men have an extraordinarily erroneous opinion of their position in nature; and the error is ineradicable.
It was not till quite late in life that I discovered how easy it is to say: "I don't know."
I forget who it was that recommended men for their soul's good to do each day two things they disliked ... it is a precept that I have followed scrupulously; for every day I have got up and I have gone to bed.
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.
Now 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.
A soul is a troublesome possession, and when man developed it he lost the Garden of Eden.
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.
…you know what the critics are. If you tell the truth they only say you're cynical and it does an author no good to get a reputation for cynicism.
You know, there are two good things in life, freedom of thought and freedom of action.
It's very hard to be a gentleman and a writer.
Like all weak men he laid an exaggerated stress on not changing one's mind.
There is no object to life. To nature nothing matters but the continuation of the species.
I have not been afraid of excess: excess on occasion is exhilarating. It prevents moderation from acquiring the deadening effect of a habit.
It is cruel to discover one's mediocrity only when it is too late.
Sometimes people carry to such perfection the mask they have assumed that in due course they actually become the person they seem.
She plunged into a sea of platitudes, and with the powerful breast stroke of a channel swimmer made her confident way towards the white cliffs of the obvious.
Life isn't long enough for love and art.