W. Somerset Maugham
W. Somerset Maugham
William Somerset Maugham CHwas a British playwright, novelist and short story writer. He was among the most popular writers of his era and reputedly the highest paid author during the 1930s...
NationalityBritish
ProfessionPlaywright
Date of Birth25 January 1874
character men average
The normal is what you find but rarely. The normal is an ideal. It is a picture that one fabricates of the average characteristics of men, and to find them all in a single man is hardly to be expected.
character personality quality
Reserve is an artificial quality that is developed in most of us but as the result of innumerable rebuffs.
character personality culture
The value of culture is its effect on character. It avails nothing unless it ennobles and strengthens that. Its use is for life. Its aim is not beauty but goodness.
eye vanity judging
When we come to judge others it is not by ourselves as we really are that we judge them, but by an image that we have formed of ourselves from which we have left out everything that offends our vanity or would discredit us in the eyes of the world.
men community faces
In civilized communities men's idiosyncrasies are mitigated by the necessity of conforming to certain rules of behavior. Culture is a mask that hides their faces.
community morality ethics
Conscience is the guardian in the individual of the rules which the community has evolved for its own preservation.
money men devil
The value of money is that with it we can tell any man to go to the devil. It is the sixth sense which enables you to enjoy the other five.
culture ends
The end of culture is right living
inspirational teaching learning
The trouble is that thinking looks like loafing. Who wants to pay people for daydreaming?
wine drink sherry
Sherry, the civilized drink.
long reason pauses
Never pause unless you have a reason for it, but when you pause, pause as long as you can.
mean long razors
You know, the Philistines have long since discarded the rack and stake as a means of suppressing the opinions they feared: they've discovered a much more deadly weapon of destruction -- the wisecrack.
men imperfection hell
Men have ascribed to God imperfections that they would deplore in themselves.
sunset mouths looks
Why did you look at the sunset?' Philip answered with his mouth full: Because I was happy.