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
wisdom people intelligence
If people waited to know one another before they married, the world wouldn't be as overpopulated as it is now.
disappointment real reading
Insensibly he formed the most delightful habit in the world, the habit of reading: he did not know that thus he was providing himself with a refuge from all the distress of life; he did not know either that he was creating for himself an unreal world which would make the real world of every day a source of bitter disappointment.
believe religion unitarian
A Unitarian very earnestly disbelieves what everyone else believes.
atheism ineffable mystic
The mystic sees the ineffable, and the psychopathologist the unspeakable.
beauty beautiful fashion
Beauty is something wonderful and strange that the artist fashions out of the chaos of the world in the torment of his soul.
women cost
No woman is worth more than a fiver unless you're in love with her. Then she's worth all she costs you.
exercise sacrifice people
I am afraid of people with too much charm. They devour you. In the end you are made a sacrifice to the exercise of their fascinating gift and their insincerity.
morning silly maturity
The complete life, the perfect pattern, includes old age as well as youth and maturity. The beauty of the morning and the radiance of noon are good, but it would be a very silly person who drew the curtains and turned on the light in order to shut out the tranquillity of the evening. Old age has its pleasures, which, though different, are not less than the pleasures of youth.
hate magic three
"Do you like card tricks?" "No, I hate card tricks," I answered. "Well, I`ll just show you this one." He showed me three.
care rewards moral
The moral I draw is that the writer should seek his reward in the pleasure of his work and in release from the burden of thought; and, indifferent to aught else, care nothing for praise or censure, failure or success.
death tonight baghdad
I [Death] was astonished to see him in Baghdad, for I had an appointment with him tonight in Samarra.
beauty simple smell
Beauty is an ecstasy; it is as simple as hunger. There is really nothing to be said about it. It is like the perfume of a rose: you can smell it and that is all.
wine men glasses
She loved three things — a joke, a glass of wine, and a handsome man.
victory might defeat
It might be that to surrender to happiness was to accept defeat, but it was a defeat better than many victories.