793 Quotes by W. Somerset Maugham

The world in general doesn’t know what to make of originality; it is startled out of its comfortable habits of thought, and its first reaction is one of anger.

It is not wealth one asks for, but just enough to preserve one’s dignity, to work unhampered, to be generous, frank and independent.

The passing years are like a mist sweeping up from the sea of time so that my memories acquire new aspects.

It's a funny thing about life: if you refuse to accept anything but the best, you very often get it.

It's asking a great deal that things should appeal to your reason as well as your sense of the aesthetic.

Punctuality is a compliment you pay to the intelligent and a rebuke you pay to the stupid.

Illusions are like umbrellas you no sooner get them than you lose them, and the loss always leaves a little painful wound.

To drink a glass of sherry when you can get a dry Martini is like taking a stagecoach when you can travel by the Orient Express.

Is the string with which a sardonic destiny directs the motions of its puppets.