793 Quotes by W. Somerset Maugham

When a man’s in love, he at once makes a pedestal of the Ten Commandments and stands on the top of them with his arms akimbo. When a woman’s in love she doesn’t care two straws for Thou Shalt and Thou Shalt Not.

I always find it more difficult to say the things I mean than the things I don’t.

I write only when inspiration strikes. Fortunately it strikes every morning at nine o’clock sharp.

What I’m trying to tell you is that there are men who are possessed by an urge so strong to do some particular thing that they can’t help themselves, they’ve got to do it. They’re prepared to sacrifice everything to satisfy their yearning.

There is only one thing about which I am certain, and this is that there is very little about which one can be certain.

It’s very hard to be a gentleman and a writer.

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

Any society that values wealth above freedom will lose its freedom, and will ultimately lose its wealth as well.

The love that lasts the longest is the love that is never returned.