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d249be9
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For the same uprush of fancy which had shown him with all the force of mathematical demonstration that life had no meaning, brought with it another idea; and that was why Cronshaw, he imagined, had given him the Persian rug. As the weaver elaborated his pattern for no end but the pleasure of his aesthetic sense, so might a man live his life, or if one was forced to believe that his actions were outside his choosing, so might a man look at h..
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W. Somerset Maugham |
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4e6905b
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Aloof on her mountain top she considered the innumerable activities of men. She had a wonderful sense of freedom from all earthly ties, and it was such an ecstasy that nothing in comparison with it had any value. She felt like a spirit in heaven.
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W. Somerset Maugham |
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400f9f8
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going about with a huge, heavy arm or dragging along a grossly disfigured leg. Men and women wore the lava-lava. "It's a very indecent costume," said Mrs. Davidson. "Mr. Davidson thinks it should be prohibited by law. How can you expect people to be moral when they wear nothing but a strip of red cotton round their loins?" "It's suitable enough to the climate," said the doctor, wiping the sweat off his head. Now that they were on land the h..
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W. Somerset Maugham |
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76ee1e6
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I wish to deal only with the masterpieces which the consensus of opinion for a long time has accepted as supreme. We are all supposed to have read them; it is a pity that so few of us have.
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reading
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W. Somerset Maugham |
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7533981
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We paint from within outward - if we force our vision on the world it calls us great painters; if we don't it ignores us; but we are the same. We don't attach any meaning to greatness or smallness. What happens to our work afterward is unimportant; we have got all we could out of it while we were doing it.
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W. Somerset Maugham |
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38f27bc
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The best to be said for it is that when you've come to the conclusion that something is inevitable all you can do is to make the best of it.
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W. Somerset Maugham |
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f45bfef
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Thoreau] is a nimble skater who cuts elegant and complicated figures on a surface of frozen platitudes. Perhaps he would have been a better writer if he had not been quite so good a man.
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W. Somerset Maugham |
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23cbdb0
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He was no longer the awkward man of social intercourse, who was sufficiently conscious of his limitations not to talk of what he did not understand, and sincere enough not to express admiration for what he did not like.
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W. Somerset Maugham |
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7f8931b
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She had asked if he was good-looking. 'No, I don't think he is,' answered Margaret, 'but he's very paintable.' 'That is an answer which has the advantage of sounding well and meaning nothing,' smiled Susie. She
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W. Somerset Maugham |
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ba7c161
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I do not attach any exaggerated importance to my poetical works. Life is there to be lived rather than to be written about. My aim is to search out the manifold experience that it offers, wringing from each moment what of emotion it presents. I look upon my writing as a graceful accomplishment which does not absorb but rather adds pleasure to existence. And as for posterity--damn posterity.
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poem
posterity
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W. Somerset Maugham |
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2d5bd68
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The Almighty can hardly be such a fool as the churches make out. If you keep His laws I don't think He can care a packet of pins whether you believe in Him or not.
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religion
spirituality
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W. Somerset Maugham |
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2e7d903
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To achieve great success in literature you must have a certain coarseness in your composition... Really to move and influence men you must have complete understanding, and you can only get that if you have in you something of the common clay of humanity.
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W. Somerset Maugham |
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09284d2
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They will not disappoint you, and you will look upon them more charitably. Men seek but one thing in life--their pleasure
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pleasure
society
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W. Somerset Maugham |
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045aa9c
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You are cryptic,' said Philip. 'I am drunk,' answered Cronshaw.
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W. Somerset Maugham |
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041c13f
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Then the horrid fact was disclosed that the new head had a mania for general information. He had doubts about the utility of examinations on subjects which had been crammed for the occasion. He wanted common sense.
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W. Somerset Maugham |
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29bbb1e
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Roy was very modest about his first novel. It was short, neatly written, and, as is everything he has produced since, in perfect taste. He sent it with a pleasant letter to all the leading writers of the day, and in this he told each one how greatly he admired his works, how much he had learned from his study of them, and how ardently he aspired to follow, albeit at a humble distance, the trail his correspondent had blazed. He laid his book..
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W. Somerset Maugham |
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0a81964
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He had always had a passion for life and the idealism he had come across seemed to him for the most part a cowardly shrinking from it. The idealist withdrew himself because he could not suffer the jostling of the human crowd; he had not the strength to fight and so called the battle vulgar; he was vain and since his fellows would not take him at his own estimate, consoled himself with despising his fellows. For Phillip, this type was Haywar..
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idealism
joie-de-vivre
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W. Somerset Maugham |
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9d92f67
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His second novel was successful, but not so successful as to arouse the umbrageous susceptibilities of his competitors. In fact it confirmed them in their suspicions that he would never set the Thames on fire. He was a jolly good fellow; no side, or anything like that: they were quite content to give a leg up to a man who would never climb so high as to be an obstacle to themselves. I know some who smile bitterly now when they reflect on th..
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W. Somerset Maugham |
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c55b8a3
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Pe masura ce o sa cresti o sa descoperi ca primul lucru necesar pentru a transforma universul intr-un spatiu in care sa poti trai este sa recunosti egoismul inevitabil al omenirii. Dumneata ceri altruism de la altii, ceea ce constituie pretentia absurda ca ei sa-si sacrifice dorintele de dragul dorintelor dumitale. Dar de ce ar face-o? Odata ce te-ai impacat cu ideea ca pe lumea asta fiecare traieste pentru sine, vei cere mai putin de la se..
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W. Somerset Maugham |
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89e3df5
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He could not bear the thought of discussing his situation, he could endure it only by determining resolutely not to think about it. He was afraid of his weakness if once he began to open his heart.
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W. Somerset Maugham |
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0b12074
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If change is of the essence of existence one would have thought it only sensible to make it the premise of our philosophy. We can none of us step into the same river twice, but the river flows on and the other river we step into is cool and refreshing too.
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W. Somerset Maugham |
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e751dec
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I have nothing to do with others, I am only concerned with myself. I take advantage of the fact that the majority of mankind are led by certain rewards to do things which directly or indirectly tend to my convenience.' 'It seems to me an awfully selfish way of looking at things,' said Philip. 'But are you under the impression that men ever do anything except for selfish reasons?' 'Yes.' 'It is impossible that they should. You will find as y..
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selfish
selfishness
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W. Somerset Maugham |
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9a3c8a4
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For instance, he had a habit that poor Amy had a lot of trouble to break him of : after he'd finished his meat and vegetables he'd take a piece of bread and wipe the plate clean with it and eat it." "Do you know what that means?" I said. "It means that for long he had so little to eat that he couldn't afford to waste any food he could get." --
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W. Somerset Maugham |
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d1d9496
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he knew that he was at the mercy of his emotions: an accidental kindness touched him so much that sometimes he did not venture to speak in order not to betray the unsteadiness of his voice.
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W. Somerset Maugham |
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bde7c90
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his cheating and his bitterness and his cruelty were the revolt of his will against--oh, I don't know what you'd call it--against a deep-rooted instinct of holiness, against a desire for God that terrified and yet obsessed him.
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W. Somerset Maugham |
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9e2ba07
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Only a woman knows what a woman can do.
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W. Somerset Maugham |
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0b1c34b
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Gray's conversation was composed of cliches. However shopworn, he uttered them with an obvious conviction that he was the first person to think of them. He never went to bed, but hit the hay, where he slept the sleep of the just; if it rained it rained to beat the band and to the very end Paris to him was Gay Paree. But he was so kindly, so unselfish, so upright, so reliable, so unassuming that it was impossible not to like him. I had a rea..
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W. Somerset Maugham |
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f51fb93
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On his advice I read The Craft of Fiction by Mr. Percy Lubbock, from which I learned that the only way to write novels was like Henry James; after that I read Aspects of the Novel by Mr. E. M. Forster, from which I learned that the only way to write novels was like Mr. E. M. Forster; then I read The Structure of the Novel by Mr. Edwin Muir, from which I learned nothing at all.
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W. Somerset Maugham |
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5c63c75
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I'm afraid it sounds very rude, but I hope from the bottom of my heart that I shall never set eyes on any of you again.' pg 193
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W. Somerset Maugham |
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08911e6
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A God that can be understood is no God. Who can explain the Infinite in words?
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W. Somerset Maugham |
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226e84e
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Though I knew theoretically what people did when they were married, and was capable of putting the facts in the bluntest language, I did not really understand it. I thought it indeed rather disgusting and I did not quite, quite believe it. After all, I was aware that the earth was round, but I knew it was flat. Mrs. Driffield seemed so frank, her laugh was so open and simple, there was in her demeanour something so young and childlike, that..
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W. Somerset Maugham |
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3c399bc
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The morning drew on and the sun touched the mist so that it shone whitely like the ghost of snow on a dying star.
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W. Somerset Maugham |
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2c429fb
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I accompanied her down to the first floor and she knocked at a door. She was told to come in, and when she opened it I caught sight of a stout woman with gray hair elaborately marcelled. She was reading a book. Apparently everyone at the Bear and Key was interested in literature.
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W. Somerset Maugham |
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59fc88b
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I watched Edward Driffield. He was talking to Lady Hodmarsh. She was apparently telling him how to write a novel and giving him a list of a few that he really ought to read.
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W. Somerset Maugham |
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0244271
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When people say they do not care what others think of them, for the most part they deceive themselves. Generally they mean only that no one will know their vulgarities; and at the utmost only that they are willing to act contrary to the opinion of the majority because they are supported by the approval of their neighbours. It is not difficult to be unconventional in the eyes of the world when your unconventionality is but the convention of ..
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conventionality
courage
insightful
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W Somerset Maugham |
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1a81cd1
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They told me Carlyle was a great writer and I was ashamed that I found the French Revolution and Sartor Resartus unreadable. Can anyone read them now? I thought the opinions of others must be better than mine and I persuaded myself that I thought George Meredith magnificent. In my heart I found him affected, verbose, and insincere. A good many people think so too now. Because they told me that to admire Walter Pater was to prove myself a cu..
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W. Somerset Maugham |
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0d5bd75
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It made me sad to think how silly, useless, and trivial his life had been. It mattered very little now that he had gone to so many parties and had hobnobbed with all those princes, dukes, and counts. They had forgotten him already.
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W. Somerset Maugham |
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37c5f24
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I always think it a pity that, fashion having decided that the doings of the aristocracy are no longer a proper subject for serious fiction, Roy, always keenly sensitive to the tendency of the age, should in his later novels have confined himself to the spiritual, conflicts of solicitors, chartered accountants, and produce brokers. He does not move in these circles with his old assurance.
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W. Somerset Maugham |
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cfe20a2
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The Hindus would say that there was no beginning. The individual soul, co-existent with the universe, has existed from all eternity and owes its nature to some prior existence.
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W. Somerset Maugham |
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03cf542
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He taught that we are all greater than we know and that wisdom is the means to freedom. He taught that it is not essential to salvation to retire from the world, but only to renounce the self. He taught that work done with no selfish interest purifies the mind and that duties are opportunities afforded to man to sink his separate self and become one with the universal self.
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W. Somerset Maugham |
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c2a140b
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In the novels I had read whenever lovely woman stooped to folly she had a baby. The cause was put with infinite precaution, sometimes indeed suggested only by a row of asterisks, but the result was inevitable.
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W. Somerset Maugham |
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85ea4be
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Nothing, I suppose, exasperates a woman more than the sexual desire for her of a man who is physically repellent to her, and when, to put it bluntly, he will not take no for an answer, she may very well come to hate him.
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W. Somerset Maugham |
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76c9754
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like many another self-educated man, he attached an exaggerated importance to the knowledge he had so painfully acquired and could not resist the temptation to parade it,...
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W. Somerset Maugham |
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0a02b9c
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It is very difficult to know people and I don't think one can ever really know any but one's own countrymen. For men and women are not only themselves; they are also the region in which they were born, the city apartment or the 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..
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W. Somerset Maugham |