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
english expect hope husbands perfection women
American women expect to find in their husbands a perfection that English women only hope to find in their butlers.
country children pain
It is clear that men accept an immediate pain rather than an immediate pleasure, but only because they expect a greater pleasure in the future. Often the pleasure is illusory, but their error in calculation is no refutation of the rule. You are puzzled because you cannot get over the idea that pleasures are only of the sense; but, child, a man who dies for his country dies because he likes it as surely as a man eats pickled cabbage because he likes it.
beautiful coffee character
But there are people who take salt with their coffee. They say it gives a tang, a savour, which is peculiar and fascinating. In the same way there are certain places, surrounded by a halo of romance, to which the inevitable disillusionment you experience on seeing them gives a singular spice. You had expected something wholly beautiful and you get an impression which is infinitely more complicated than any that beauty can give you. It is the weakness in the character of a great man which may make him less admirable but certainly more interesting. Nothing had prepared me for Honolulu...
acceptance world blame
I do not confer praise or blame: I accept. I am the measure of all things. I am the center of the world.
art honesty practice
In business sharp practice sometimes succeeds, but in art honesty is not only the best but the only policy.
stupid romance heartless
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.
pain writing journey
Heaven knows what pains the author has been at, what bitter experience he has endured and what heartache suffered, to give some chance reader a few hours' relaxation or to while away the tedium of a journey.
wise doubt age
Our wise old church...has discovered that if you will act as if you believed belief will be given to you; if you pray with doubt, but pray with sincerity, your doubt will be dispelled; if you will surrender yourself to the beauty of that liturgy the power of which over the human spirit has been proved by the experience of the ages, peace will descend upon you.
book reading thinking
Make him laugh and he will think you a trivial fellow, but bore him in the right way and your reputation is assured.
funny mother boys
Few misfortunes can befall a boy which bring worse consequence than to have a really affectionate mother.
cynical criticism doe
You know what the critics are. If you tell the truth they only say you're cynical and it does an author no good to get a reputation for cynicism.
writing young-writers trouble
The trouble with young writers is that they are all in their sixties.
sentimental way sentiments
Sentimentality is the only sentiment that rubs you the wrong way.
falling-in-love men might
With the superciliousness of extreme youth, I put thirty-five as the utmost limit at which a man might fall in love without making a fool of himself.