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
thinking survival mind
The arguments for immortality, weak when you take them one by one, are no more cogent when you take them together... For my part, I cannot see how consciousness can persist when its physical basis has been destroyed, and I am too sure of the interconnection of my body and my mind to think that any survival of my my consciousness apart from my body would be in any sense a survival of myself.
men atheism answers
Now the answer ... is plain, but it is so unpalatable that most men will not face it. There is no reason for life and life has no meaning.
sadness hands sick
I am sick of this way of life. The weariness and sadness of old age make it intolerable. I have walked with death in hand, and death's own hand is warmer than my own. I don't wish to live any longer.
perfect long would-be
Perfect is determined in shortened measures of time, not over long periods of time or lifetimes. It would be unnatural.
appreciation art long
I never spend more than one hour in a gallery. That is as long as one's power of appreciation persists.
self epilepsy feet
I'm not only my spirit buy my body, and who can decide how much I, my individual self, am conditioned by the accident of my body? Would Byron have been Byron but for his club foot, or Dostoyevsky Dostoyevsky without his epilepsy?
sight bored world
The world is quickly bored by the recital of misfortune, and willing avoids the sight of distress.
nature men errors
Men have an extraordinarily erroneous opinion of their position in nature; and the error is ineradicable.
creativity perfection creative
It seems that the creative faculty and the critical faculty cannot exist together in their highest perfection.
grace looks doe
It is well known that Beauty does not look with a good grace on the timid advances of Humour.
men relief littles
Charm and nothing but charm at last grows a little tiresome. It's a relief then to deal with a man who isn't quite so delightful but a little more sincere.
book hands profound
But the only important thing in a book is the meaning it has for you; it may have other and much more profound meanings for the critic, but at second-hand they can be of small service to you.
simple hunger ecstasy
Beauty is an ecstasy; it is as simple as hunger.
children book sleep
The day broke grey and dull. The clouds hung heavily, and there was a rawness in the air that suggested snow. A woman servant came into a room in which a child was sleeping and drew the curtains. She glanced mechanically at the house opposite, a stucco house with a portico, and went to the child's bed.