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
beautiful religious giving-up
Marco Polo tells the tale of The Old Man in the Mountains and how he recruits new members to his Band of Assassins by means of drugs, beautiful women, lush gardens, and religious promises. The unfortunate thing about this world is that the good habits are much easier to give up than the bad ones.
character writing giving
No author can create a character out of nothing. He must have a model to give him a starting point; but then his imagination goes to work, he builds him up, adding a trait here, a trait there, which his model did not possess.
copies great-writers
Great writers create; writers of smaller gifts copy
self atheism democracy
What does democracy come down to? The persuasive power of slogans invented by wily self-seeking politicians.
men air littles
A little smoke lost in the air, that was the life of a man.
atheism
I thought it was only in revealed religion that a mistranslation improved the sense.
scum-of-the-earth people moral
I've met so many people, often the scum of the earth, and found them, you know, quite decent. I am an uncomfortable stranger to moral indignation.
character names common-sense
Common-sense appears to be only another name for the thoughtlessness of the unthinking. It is made of the prejudices of childhood, the idiosyncrasies of individual character and the opinion of the newspapers.
mind farce comedy
Comedy appeals to the collective mind of the audience and this grows fatigued; while farce appeals to a more robust organ, their collective belly.
men virtue ifs
As if a woman ever loved a man for his virtue.
sex men mind
I have always been convinced that if a woman once made up her mind to marry a man, nothing but instant flight could save him.
funny people curmudgeon
I've always been interested in people, but I've never liked them.
past evil suffering
Has it occurred to you that transmigration is at once an explanation and a justification of the evil of the world? If the evils we suffer are the result of sins committed in our past lives, we can bear them with resignation and hope that if in this one we strive toward virtue out future lives will be less afflicted.
wisdom thinking history
There's no one as transparent as the person who thinks he's devilish deep.