793 Quotes by W. Somerset Maugham

We find things beautiful because we recognize them and contrariwise we find things beautiful because their novelty surprises us.

A good Havana is one of the best pleasures that I know.

It is dangerous to let the public behind the scenes. They are easily disillusioned and then they are angry with you, for it was the illusion they loved.

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.

There's no one as transparent as the person who thinks he's devilish deep.

I never met an author who admitted that people did not buy his book because it was dull.

Now it is a funny thing about life. If you refuse to accept anything but the best, you very often get it. If you utterly decline to make do with what you can get, then somehow or other, you are very likely to get what you want.

Heaven knows what pains the author has been at, what bitter experience he has endured and what heartache suffered, to give some chance reader a few hours' relaxation or to while away the tedium of a journey.

You will find as you grow older that the first thing needful to make the world a tolerable place to live in is to recognize the inevitable selfishness of humanity. You demand unselfishness from others, which is a preposterous claim that they should sacrifice their desires to yours. Why should they? When you are reconciled to the fact that each is for himself in the world you will ask less from your fellows. They will not disappoint you, and you will look upon them more charitably. Men seek but one thing in life -- their pleasure.