793 Quotes by W. Somerset Maugham

There's nothing the world loves more than a ready-made description which they can hang on to a man, and so save themselves all trouble in future.

For men and women are not only themselves; they are also the region in which they are born, the city apartment or farm in which they learnt to walk, the games they played as children, the old wives tales they overheard, the food they ate, the schools they attended, the sports they followed, the poets they read, and the God they believed in. It is all these things that have made them what they are, and these are the things that you can't come to know by hearsay...

Few misfortunes can befall a boy which bring worse consequences than to have a really affectionate mother.

The highest activities of consciousness have their origins in physical occurrences of the brain, just as the loveliest melodies are not too sublime to be expressed by notes.

So long as some are strong and some are weak, the weak will be driven to the wall.

All the words I use in my stories can be found in the dictionary-it's just a matter of arranging them into the right sentences.

If forty million people say a foolish thing it does not become a wise one, but the wise man is foolish to give them the lie.

For the complete life, the perfect pattern includes old age as well as youth and maturity.

In heaven, when the blessed use the telephone they will say what they have to say and not a word besides.