793 Quotes by W. Somerset Maugham

Beauty is also a Gift of God, one of the most rare and precious, and we should be thankful if we are happy enough to possess it and thankful, if we are not, that others possess it for our pleasure.

A man ought to work. That's what he's here for. That's how he contributes to the welfare of the community.

If a nation values anything more than freedom, it will lose its freedom, and the irony of it is that if it is comfort or money that it values more, it will lose that too.

First, cut out all the wisdom, then cut out all the adjectives.

The life force is vigorous. The delight that accompanies it counter-balances all the pains and hardships that confront men. It makes life worth living.

Perhaps it would have been possible to see in him a new Prometheus...the hero who for the good of mankind exposes himself to the agonies of the damned...undaunted by failure, by an unceasing effort of courage holding despair at bay, doggedly persistent in the face of self-doubt, which is the artist's bitterest enemy...

There is only one way to win hearts and that is to make oneself like unto those of whom one would be loved.

People ask for criticism, but they only want praise.

Life wouldn’t be worth living if I worried over the future as well as the present. When things are at their worst I find something always happens.