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a9549e2
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What on earth did you want with an early Christian sarcophagus, Elliot?" "To put myself in it, my dear fellow. It was of very good design, and I thought it would balance the font on the other side of the entrance, but those early Christians were stumpy little fellows and I shouldn't have fitted in. I wasn't going to lie there till the Last Trump with my knees doubled up to my chin like a foetus. Most uncomfortable."
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W. Somerset Maugham |
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91e0acd
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Is that what we come into the world for, to hurry to an office, and work hour after hour till night, then hurry home and dine and go to a theatre? Is that how I must spend my youth? Youth lasts so short a time, Bateman. And when I am old, what have I to look forward to? To hurry from my home in the morning to my office and work hour after hour after hour till night, and then hurry home again, and dine and go to a theatre? That may be worthw..
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W. Somerset Maugham |
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6f3c9ee
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Then this must be my answer: We know that the attributes of God are infinite and it has always seemed strange to me that men have never given Him credit for common sense. It is hard to believe that He would have created so beautiful a world if He had not decided men to enjoy it. Would He have given the stars their glory, the birds their sweet song, and the flowers, their fragrance if He had not wished us to delight in them? I shave sinned b..
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W. Somerset Maugham |
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db92089
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I had not then acquired the technique that I flatter myself now enables me to deal competently with the works of modern artist. If this were the place I could write a very neat little guide to enable the amateur of pictures to deal to the satisfaction of their painters with the most diverse manifestations of the creative instinct. There is the intense 'By God!' that acknowledges the power of the ruthless realist, the 'It's so awfully sincer..
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W. Somerset Maugham |
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55ead84
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He had violent passions, and on occasion desire seized his body so that he was driven to an orgy of lust, but he hated the instincts that robbed him of his self-possession. I think, even, he hated the inevitable partner in his debauchery. When he had regained command over himself, he shuddered at the sight of the woman he had enjoyed. His thoughts floated then serenely in the empyrean, and he felt towards her the horror that perhaps the pai..
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sex
lust
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W. Somerset Maugham |
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748de98
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It is a riddle which shares with the universe the merit of having no answer.
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W. Somerset Maugham |
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509e943
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Oh, my dear, it's rather hard to take quite literally the things a man says when he's in love with you." "Didn't you mean them?" "At the moment." --
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W. Somerset Maugham |
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9144eaa
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Ye cannot find out the depth of the heart of man, neither can ye perceive the things that he thinketh; then how can ye search out God, that hath made all these things, and know His mind, or comprehend His purpose?
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W. Somerset Maugham |
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e843f36
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You see, you and I are the only people here who walk quite quietly and peaceably on solid ground. The nuns walk in heaven and your husband -- in darkness.
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W. Somerset Maugham |
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7c25bbd
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Her happiness, sometimes almost more than she could bear, renewed her beauty. Just before she married, beginning to lose her first freshness, she had looked tired and drawn. The uncharitable said that she was going off. But there is all the difference between a girl of twenty-five and a married woman of that age.
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W Somerset Maugham |
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5cb7c95
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A man thinks it quite natural that he should fall out of love with a woman, but it never strikes him for a moment that a woman can do anything so unnatural as to fall out of love with him.
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W. Somerset Maugham |
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ddc9d2c
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Happily men don't realise how stupid they are, or half the world would commit suicide. Knowledge is a will-of-the-wisp, fluttering ever out of the traveller's reach; and a weary journey must be endured before it is even seen. It is only when a man knows a good deal that he discovers how unfathomable is his ignorance. The man who knows nothing is satisfied that there is nothing to know, consequently that he knows everything; and you may more..
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W. Somerset Maugham |
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264682d
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It is always distressing when outraged morality does not possess the strength of arm to administer direct chastisement on the sinner.
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W. Somerset Maugham |
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a8e785f
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My native gifts are not remarkable, but I have a certain force of character which has enabled me in a measure to supplement my deficiencies. I have common-sense. Most people cannot see anything, but I can see what is in the front of my nose with extreme clearness; the greatest writers can see through a brick wall. My vision is not so penetrating. For many years I have been described as a cynic; I told the truth. I wish no one to take me for..
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W. Somerset Maugham |
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3d47484
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Genius is a word that is very loosely used nowadays. It is ascribed to persons to whom a more sober judgement would be satisfied to allow talent. Genius and talent are very different things. Many people have talent; it is not rare: genius is. Talent is adroit and dexterous; it can be cultivated; genius is innate, and too often strangely allied to grave defects. But what is genius?
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W. Somerset Maugham |
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e95029a
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I thought with melancholy how an author spends months writing a book, and maybe puts his heart's blood into it, and then it lies about unread till the reader has nothing else in the world to do.
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writer
writing
book
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W. Somerset Maugham |
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16eb3af
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His habit of reading isolated him: it became such a need that after being in company for some time he grew tired and restless ...
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reading
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W. Somerset Maugham |
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5bbd410
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he felt a queer little pang of bitterness because reality seemed so different from the ideal
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W. Somerset Maugham |
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6669d73
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It's hard not to be impatient with the absurdity of the young; they tell us that two and two make four as though it had never occurred to us, and they're disappointed if we can't share their surprise when they have discovered that a hen lays an egg. There's a lot of nonsense in their ranting and raving, but it's not all nonsense. One ought to sympathize with them; one ought to do one's best to understand. One has to remember how much has to..
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youth
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W. Somerset Maugham |
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c33088f
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Philip knew by now that whenever anyone was angry with him his first thought was to say something about his club-foot. His estimate of the human race was determined by the fact that scarcely anyone failed to resist the temptation.
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human-race
temptation
club-foot
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W. Somerset Maugham |
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739ac77
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Enjoy yourself while you have the chance, I say; we shall all be dead in a hundred years and what will anything matter then?
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W. Somerset Maugham |
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91d51be
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He was at once to great and too small for love.
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W. Somerset Maugham |
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b25b307
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Sometimes I think that when we say our honour prevents us from doing this or that we deceive ourselves, and our real motive is vanity.
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W. Somerset Maugham |
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f832bf9
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We English have no very strong attachment to the soil, we can make ourselves at home in any part of the world, but the French, I think, have an attachment to their country which is almost a physical bond. They're never really at ease when they're out of it.
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W. Somerset Maugham |
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41db9a9
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She must really love you to distraction." "It's rather a funny sensation, you know," he answered, wrinkling a perplexed forehead. "I haven't the smallest doubt that if I really left her, definitely, she would commit suicide. Not with any ill-feeling towards me, but quite naturally, because she was unwilling to live without me. It is a curious feeling it gives one to know that. It can't help meaning something to you."
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W. Somerset Maugham |
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232144d
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I hate you. I wish you was dead.
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pain
hate
heart
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W. Somerset Maugham |
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b9f921e
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It was as though the house had been left empty but a minute before and yet that minute was fraught with eternity so that you could not imagine that ever again that house would echo with talk and resound with laughter.
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W. Somerset Maugham |
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00b2358
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Grief she could not feel, for there had been too much bitterness between her mother and herself to leave in her heart any deep feeling of affection; and looking back on the girl she had been she knew that it was her mother who had made her what she was.
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W. Somerset Maugham |
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fdcbb59
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Let me be frank just this once, father. I've been foolish and wicked and hateful. I've been terribly punished. I'm determined to save my daughter from all that. I want her to be fearless and frank. I want her to be a person, independent of others because she is possessed of herself, and I want her to take life like a free man and make a better job of it than I have.
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W. Somerset Maugham |
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96c9103
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He was thankful not to have to believe in God, for then such a condition of things would be intolerable; one could reconcile oneself to existence only because it was meaningless.
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religion
life
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W. Somerset Maugham |
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1ed5f53
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It may be that in his rogues the writer gratifies instincts deep-rooted in him, which the manners and customs of a civilised world have forced back to the mysterious recesses of the subconscious. In giving to the character of his invention flesh and bones he is giving life to that part of himself which finds no other means of expression. His satisfaction is a sense of liberation. The writer is more concerned to know than to judge.
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W. Somerset Maugham |
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298d193
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How ugly most people are! It's a pity they don't try to make up for it by being agreeable.
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W. Somerset Maugham |
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07f05f7
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I have written this because it may have escaped the notice of many who have admired her [Marie Tempest] brilliant performances that they are due not only to her natural gifts...but to patience, assiduity, industry and discipline. Without these it is impossible to excel in any of the arts.
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W. Somerset Maugham |
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2953317
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The general idiocy of mankind is such that they can be swayed by words, and however mortifying, for the present you have to accept the fact as you accept it in the cinema that a film to be a success must have a happy ending.
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W. Somerset Maugham |
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cf6ca97
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The bright hopes of youth had to be paid for at such a bitter price of disillusionment.
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W. Somerset Maugham |
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5c81ab3
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How silly men were! Their part in procreation was so unimportant; it was the woman who carried the child through long months of uneasiness and bore it with pain, and yet a man because of his momentary connection made such preposterous claims. Why should that make any difference to him in his feelings towards the child?
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men
women
procreation
conception
children
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W. Somerset Maugham |
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f3aa980
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Everything passed, and what trace of its passage remained? It seemed to Kitty that they were all, the human race, like the drops of water in that river and they flowed on, each so close to the other and yet so far apart, a nameless flood, to the sea. When all things lasted so short a time and nothing mattered very much, it seemed pitiful that men, attaching an absurd importance to trivial objects, should make themselves and one another so u..
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metaphor
human-race
kindness
humanity
triviality-of-life
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W. Somerset Maugham |
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b769e90
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Benevolence is often very peremptory.
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goodness
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W. Somerset Maugham |
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02b9b0e
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Good gracious, she could have remained faithful to him in spirit while she was being unfaithful to him in the flesh. That is a feat of legerdemain that women find it easy to accomplish.' What a odious cynic you are.'
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W. Somerset Maugham |
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c5ebfe8
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Do you know, it seems to me that a great deal of nonsense is talked about the dignity of work. Work is a drug that dull people take to avoid the pangs of unmitigated boredom. It has been adorned with fine phrases, because it is a necessity to most men, and men always gild the pill they're obliged to swallow. Work is a sedative. It keeps people quiet and contented. It makes them good material for their leaders. I think the greatest imposture..
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W. Somerset Maugham |
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a4f8a19
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He could as little escape her as the cause can escape the effect.
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W. Somerset Maugham |
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3d7372a
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When people say they do not care what others thing of them, for the most part they deceive themselves
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W. Somerset Maugham |
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e1ef2f1
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You Europeans know nothing about America. Because we amass large fortunes you think we care for nothing but money. We are nothing for it; the moment we have it we spend it, sometimes well, sometimes ill, but we spend it. Money is nothing to us; it's merely the symbol of success. We are the greatest idealists in the world; I happen to think that we've set our ideal on the wrong objects; I happen to think that the greatest ideal man can set b..
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W. Somerset Maugham |
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fe46004
|
He was the most inconsiderable creature in that swarming mass of mankind which for a brief space occupied the surface of the earth; and he was almighty because he had wrenched from chaos the secret of its nothingness.
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nothingness
insignificance
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W. Somerset Maugham |