793 Quotes by W. Somerset Maugham

The unfortunate thing about this world is that the good habits are much easier to give up than the bad ones.

I'm afraid you've thought me a bigger fool than I am.

If truth is a value it is because it is true and not because it is brave to speak it.

The great critic must be a philosopher, for from philosophy he will learn serenity, impartiality, and the transitoriness of human things.

The common idea that success spoils people by making them vain, egotistic, and self-complacent is erroneous, on the contrary, it makes them for the most part, humble, tolerant, and kind. Failure makes people bitter and cruel.

The drama is make-believe. It does not deal with truth but with effect.

American women expect to find in their husbands a perfection that English women only hope to find in their butlers.

The inclination to digress is human. But the dramatist must avoid it even more strenuously than the saint must avoid sin, for while sin may be venial, digression is mortal.

It has been said that good prose should resemble the conversation of a well-bred man.