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
dignity bondage policemen
Follow your inclinations with due regard to the policeman round the corner.
god infinite understood
A God that can be understood is no God. Who can explain the Infinite in words?
decision littles certain
There is only one thing about which I am certain, and this is that there is very little about which one can be certain
jobs mean beer
I am told that today rather more than 60 per cent of the men who go to university go on a Government grant. This is a new class that has entered upon the scene. It is the white-collar proletariat. They do not go to university to acquire culture but to get a job, and when they have got one, scamp it. They have no manners and are woefully unable to deal with any social predicament. Their idea of a celebration is to go to a public house and drink six beers. They are mean, malicious and envious . They are scum.
christian war night
...I couldn't but surmise that the devil, looking at the cruel wars that Christianity has occasioned, the persecutions, the tortures Christian has inflicted on Christian, the unkindness, the hypocracy, the intolerance, must consider the balance sheet with complacency. And when he remembers that it has laid upon mankind the bitter burden of the sense of sin that has darkened the beauty of the starry night and cast a baleful shadow on the passing plesures of a world to be enjoyed, he must chuckle as he murmurs: give the devil his due.
swimming people mediocre
Only mediocre people are at the best all the time.
dream memories heart
I can only guess that it made the world he went back to...strangely without meaning. Though he lived in it, though he even enjoyed it, it remained utterly remote. I think it had lost sense for him. In his heart was the reflection of a lovely dream that he could never quite recall.
fashion average heaven
The average American can get into the kingdom of heaven much more easily than he can get into the Boulevard St. Germain.
beauty beautiful beer
The mathematician who after seeing Phedre asked: 'Qu'est que ca prouve?' was not such a fool as he has been generally made out. No one has ever been able to explain why the Doric temple of Paestum is more beautiful than a glass of cold beer except by bringing in considerations that have nothing to do with beauty.
character enough knows
You can never know enough about your characters
art hero self
Perhaps it would have been possible to see in him a new Prometheus...the hero who for the good of mankind exposes himself to the agonies of the damned...undaunted by failure, by an unceasing effort of courage holding despair at bay, doggedly persistent in the face of self-doubt, which is the artist's bitterest enemy...
art human-bondage refuge
Art is merely the refuge which the ingenious have invented, when they were supplied with food and women, to escape the tediousness of life.
philosophy serenity philosopher
The great critic … must be a philosopher, for from philosophy he will learn serenity, impartiality, and the transitoriness of human things.
sunset thinking thank-god
Thank God, I can look at a sunset now without having to think how to describe it