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3707f62
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To acquire the habit of reading is to construct for yourself a refuge from almost all the miseries of life.
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escape
reading
books
life
good-habits
refuge
pleasure
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W. Somerset Maugham |
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8c45ddd
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How can I be reasonable? To me our love was everything and you were my whole life. It is not very pleasant to realize that to you it was only an episode.
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women
life
love
breakup
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W. Somerset Maugham |
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17bdf6c
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Impropriety is the soul of wit.
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W. Somerset Maugham |
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a56dea6
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As lovers, the difference between men and women is that women can love all day long, but men only at times.
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men
women
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W. Somerset Maugham |
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0bb5f54
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It is an illusion that youth is happy, an illusion of those who have lost it; but the young know they are wretched for they are full of the truthless ideal which have been instilled into them, and each time they come in contact with the real, they are bruised and wounded. It looks as if they were victims of a conspiracy; for the books they read, ideal by the necessity of selection, and the conversation of their elders, who look back upon th..
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youth
truth
ideals
real
nostalgia
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W. Somerset Maugham |
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ba305be
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He did not care if she was heartless, vicious and vulgar, stupid and grasping, he loved her. He would rather have misery with one than happiness with the other.
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romance
misery
obsession
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W. Somerset Maugham |
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a0db5d0
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If a man hasn't what's necessary to make a woman love him, it's his fault, not hers.
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men
women
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W. Somerset Maugham |
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443503f
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I had no illusions about you,' he said. 'I knew you were silly and frivolous and empty-headed. But I loved you. I knew that your aims and ideals were vulgar and commonplace. But I loved you. I knew that you were second-rate. But I loved you. It's comic when I think how hard I tried to be amused by the things that amused you and how anxious I was to hide from you that I wasn't ignorant and vulgar and scandal-mongering and stupid. I knew how ..
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marriage
love
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W. Somerset Maugham |
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b0017c6
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I always find it more difficult to say the things I mean than the things I don't.
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veil
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W. Somerset Maugham |
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07f5b70
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Oh, it's always the same,' she sighed, 'if you want men to behave well to you, you must be beastly to them; if you treat them decently they make you suffer for it.
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men
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W. Somerset Maugham |
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92258b9
|
I have an idea that the only thing which makes it possible to regard this world we live in without disgust is the beauty which now and then men create out of the chaos. The pictures they paint, the music they compose, the books they write, and the lives they lead. Of all these the richest in beauty is the beautiful life. That is the perfect work of art.
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writing
books
beauty
music
life
chaos
painting
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W. Somerset Maugham |
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c1d2e0e
|
People ask you for criticism, but they only want praise.
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W. Somerset Maugham |
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dd65e89
|
I know that you're selfish, selfish beyond words, and I know that you haven't the nerve of a rabbit, I know you're a liar and a humbug, I know that you're utterly contemptible. And the tragic part is'--her face was on a sudden distraught with pain--'the tragic part is that notwithstanding I love you with all my heart.
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tragedy
men
women
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W. Somerset Maugham |
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cbc3140
|
Some of us look for the Way in opium and some in God, some of us in whiskey and some in love. It is all the same Way and it leads nowhither.
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religion
love
whiskey
nowhere
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W. Somerset Maugham |
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5ffa2f2
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You're beginning to dislike me, aren't you? Well, dislike me. It doesn't make any difference to me now.
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hate
indifference
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W. Somerset Maugham |
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18d92ec
|
It was one of the queer things of life that you saw a person every day for months and were so intimate with him that you could not imagine existence without him; then separation came, and everything went on in the same way, and the companion who had seemed essential proved unnecessary.
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W. Somerset Maugham |
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4d37f8c
|
There's always one who loves and one who lets himself be loved.
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W. Somerset Maugham |
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2652c6e
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You will find as you grow older that the first thing needful to make the world a tolerable place to live in is to recognize the inevitable selfishness of humanity. You demand unselfishness from others, which is a preposterous claim that they should sacrifice their desires to yours. Why should they? When you are reconciled to the fact that each is for himself in the world you will ask less from your fellows. They will not disappoint you, and..
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W. Somerset Maugham |
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4318930
|
When a woman loves you she's not satisfied until she possesses your soul. Because she's weak, she has a rage for domination, and nothing less will satisfy her.
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women
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W. Somerset Maugham |
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135162b
|
It is one of the defects of my character that I cannot altogether dislike anyone who makes me laugh.
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W. Somerset Maugham |
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ef72939
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Insensibly he formed the most delightful habit in the world, the habit of reading: he did not know that thus he was providing himself with a refuge from all the distress of life; he did not know either that he was creating for himself an unreal world which would make the real world of every day a source of bitter disappointment.
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words
literature
reading
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W. Somerset Maugham |
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e5089c3
|
I have an idea that some men are born out of their due place. Accident has cast them amid certain surroundings, but they have always a nostalgia for a home they know not. They are strangers in their birthplace, and the leafy lanes they have known from childhood or the populous streets in which they have played, remain but a place of passage. They may spend their whole lives aliens among their kindred and remain aloof among the only scenes t..
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home
journey
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W. Somerset Maugham |
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d6180de
|
The secret to life is meaningless unless you discover it yourself.
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of-human-bondage
secret-of-life
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W. Somerset Maugham |
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7ab84aa
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Nothing in the world is permanent, and we're foolish when we ask anything to last, but surely we're still more foolish not to take delight in it while we have it. If change is of the essence of existence one would have thought it only sensible to make it the premise of our philosophy.
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philosophy
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W. Somerset Maugham |
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7e27b74
|
It's no use crying over spilt milk, because all of the forces of the universe were bent on spilling it.
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fate
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W. Somerset Maugham |
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049fd92
|
His habit of reading isolated him: it became such a need that after being in company for some time he grew tired and restless; he was vain of the wider knowledge he had acquired from the perusal of so many books, his mind was alert, and he had not the skill to hide his contempt for his companions' stupidity. They complained that he was conceited; and, since he excelled only in matters which to them were unimportant, they asked satirically w..
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reading
isolation
popularity
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W. Somerset Maugham |
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d8100aa
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If it is necessary sometimes to lie to others, it is always despicable to lie to oneself.
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lying
self-deception
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W. Somerset Maugham |
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e8e8976
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For men and women are not only themselves; they are also the region in which they are born, the city apartment or 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 believed in. It is all these things that have made them what they are, and these are the things that you can't com..
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W. Somerset Maugham |
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54dd08d
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Was it necessary to tell me that you wanted nothing in the world but me?' The corners of his mouth drooped peevishly. 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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lies
men
relationships
women
honesty
love
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W. Somerset Maugham |
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03cb66f
|
What d'you suppose I care if I'm a gentleman or not? If I were a gentleman I shouldn't waste my time with a vulgar slut like you.
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romance
women
sluts
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W. Somerset Maugham |
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6143258
|
Women are constantly trying to commit suicide for love, but generally they take care not to succeed.
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suicide
women
love
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W. Somerset Maugham |
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7a193b8
|
Each one of us is alone in the world. He is shut in a tower of brass, and can communicate with his fellows only by signs, and the signs have no common value, so that their sense is vague and uncertain. We seek pitifully to convey to others the treasures of our heart, but they have not the power to accept them, and so we go lonely, side by side but not together, unable to know our fellows and unknown by them. We are like people living in a c..
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W. Somerset Maugham |
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6f513bb
|
It's no good trying to keep up old friendships. It's painful for both sides. The fact is, one grows out of people, and the only thing is to face it.
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W. Somerset Maugham |
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dfafe16
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Like all weak men he laid an exaggerated stress on not changing one's mind.
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W. Somerset Maugham |
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1b429cb
|
Beauty is something wonderful and strange that the artist fashions out of the chaos of the world in the torment of his soul. And when he has made it, it is not given to all to know it. To recognize it you must repeat the adventure of the artist. It is a melody that he sings to you, and to hear it again in your own heart you want knowledge and sensitiveness and imagination.
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beauty
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W. Somerset Maugham |
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26d3ef5
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Sometimes people carry to such perfection the mask they have assumed that in due course they actually become the person they seem.
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|
W. Somerset Maugham |
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9f739f1
|
There is no cruelty greater than a woman's to a man who loves her and whom she does not love; she has no kindness then, no tolerance even, she has only an insane irritation.
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W. Somerset Maugham |
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fdaf603
|
If nobody spoke unless he had something to say, the human race would very soon lose the use of speech.
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W. Somerset Maugham |
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e491d4c
|
Almost all the people who've had the most effect on me I seem to have met by chance, yet looking back it seems as though I couldn't but have met them.
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W. Somerset Maugham |
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087f5f6
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The world is hard and cruel. We are here none knows why, and we go none knows whither. We must be very humble. We must see the beauty of quietness. We must go through life so inconspicuously that Fate does not notice us. And let us seek the love of simple, ignorant people. Their ignorance is better than all our knowledge. Let us be silent, content in our little corner, meek and gentle like them. That is the wisdom of life.
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W. Somerset Maugham |
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adc508d
|
I have nothing but contempt for the people who despise money. They are hypocrites or fools. Money is like a sixth sense without which you cannot make a complete use of the other five. Without an adequate income half the possibilities of life are shut off. The only thing to be careful about is that you do not pay more than a shilling for the shilling you earn. You will hear people say that poverty is the best spur to the artist. They have ne..
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W. Somerset Maugham |
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a22943c
|
In the first place it's not true that people improve as you know them better: they don't. That's why one should only have acquaintances and never make friends. An acquaintance shows you only the best of himself, he's considerate and polite, he conceals his defects behind a mask of social convention; but we grow so intimate with him that he throws the mask aside, get to know him so well that he doesn't trouble any longer to pretend; then you..
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W. Somerset Maugham |
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4950f7e
|
This love was a torment, and he resented bitterly the subjugation in which it held him; he was a prisoner and he longed for freedom. Sometimes he awoke in the morning and felt nothing; his soul leaped, for he thought he was free; he loved no longer; but in a little while, as he grew wide awake, the pain settled in his heart, and he knew that he was not cured yet.
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W. Somerset Maugham |
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884370e
|
Remember that it is nothing to do your duty, that is demanded of you and is no more meritorious than to wash your hands when they are dirty; the only thing that counts is the love of duty; when love and duty are one, then grace is in you and you will enjoy a happiness which passes all understanding.
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W. Somerset Maugham |