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
writing gentleman comeback
It's very hard to be a gentleman and a writer.
love life heartbreak
The love that lasts longest is the love that is never returned.
food breakfast want
If you want to eat well in England, eat three breakfasts.
inspirational clever happy-new-year
At a dinner party one should eat wisely but not too well, and talk well but not too wisely.
sad courage praise
It is salutary to train oneself to be no more affected by censure than by praise.
steps poet prose
The writer of prose can only step aside when the poet passes.
eye deception world
It is not difficult to be unconventional in the eyes of the world when your unconventionality is but the convention of your set.
cutting firsts adjectives
First, cut out all the wisdom, then cut out all the adjectives.
worried human-bondage worst
Life wouldn’t be worth living if I worried over the future as well as the present. When things are at their worst I find something always happens.
dirty men expression
She [Sadie Thompson] gathered herself together. No one could describe the scorn of her expression or the contemptuous hatred she put into her answer. "You men! You filthy dirty pigs! You're all the same, all of you. Pigs! Pigs!"
order sheep imagination
A writer need not devour a whole sheep in order to know what mutton tastes like, but he must at least eat a chop. Unless he gets his facts right, his imagination will lead him into all kinds of nonsense, and the facts he is most likely to get right are the facts of his own experience.
humble ignorance fate
The world is hard and cruel. We are here none knows why, and we go none knows whither. We must be very humble. We must see the beauty of quietness. We must go through life so inconspicuously that Fate does not notice us. And let us seek the love of simple, ignorant people. Their ignorance is better than all our knowledge. Let us be silent, content in our little corner, meek and gentle like them. That is the wisdom of life.
soul world finding-peace
One cannot find peace in work or in pleasure, in the world or in a convent, but only in one's soul.
achievement poetry mind
The crown of literature is poetry. It is its end and aim. It is the sublimest activity of the human mind. It is the achievement of beauty and delicacy. The writer of prose can only step aside when the poet passes.