793 Quotes by W. Somerset Maugham

It is good to be on your guard against an Englishman who speaks French perfectly; he is very likely to be a card-sharper or an attache in the diplomatic service.

The humour of Dostoievsky is the humour of a barloafer who ties a kettle to a dog's tail.

Its a toss-up when you decide to leave the beaten track. Many are called, few are chosen.

Reverie is the groundwork of creative imagination; it is the privilege of the artist that with him it is not as with other men an escape from reality, but the means by which he accedes to it.

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

A dictator must fool all the people all the time and there's only one way to do that, he must also fool himself.

Of all the hokum with which this country [America] is riddled, the most odd is the common notion that it is free of class distinctions.

When married people don't get on they can separate, but if they're not married it's impossible. It's a tie that only death can sever.

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