793 Quotes by W. Somerset Maugham

A woman may be as wicked as she likes, but if she isn't pretty it won't do her much good.

By the time a man notices that he is no longer young, his youth has long since left him.

One does not really feel much grief at other people's sorrows; one tries, and puts on a melancholy face, thinking oneself brutal for not caring more; but one cannot and it is better, for if one grieved too deeply at other people's tears, life would be unendurable; and every man has sufficient sorrows of his own without taking to heart his neighbour's.

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

Women's hearts are like old china, none the worse for a break or two.

The moral I draw is that the writer should seek his reward in the pleasure of his work and in release from the burden of thought; and, indifferent to aught else, care nothing for praise or censure, failure or success.

It must be a fault in me that I am not gravely shocked at the sins of others unless they personally affect me.

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

Almost all the people who’ve had the most effect on me I seem to have met by chance, yet looking back it seems as though I couldn’t but have met them.