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
inspirational success congratulations
The common idea that success spoils people by making them vain, egotistic and self-complacent is erroneous; on the contrary it makes them, for the most part, humble, tolerant and kind.
book reading eye
When I read a book I seem to read it with my eyes only, but now and then I come across a passage, perhaps only a phrase, which has a meaning for me, and it becomes part of me.
tables half novel
I would sooner read a time-table or a catalogue than nothing at all. They are much more entertaining than half the novels that are written.
girl daughter children
I want a girl because I want to bring her up so that she shan't make the mistakes I've made. When I look back upon the girl I was I hate myself. But I never had a chance. I'm going to bring up my daughter so that she's free and can stand on her own feet. I´m not going to bring a child into the world, and love her, and bring her up, just so that some man may want to sleep with her so much that he's willing to provide her with board and lodging for the rest of her life.
men clothes well-dressed
The well dressed man is he whose clothes you never notice
real character hands
There are times when I look over the various parts of my character with perplexity. I recognize that I am made up of several persons and that the person that at the moment has the upper hand will inevitably give place to another. But which is the real one? All of them or none?
writing want
We do not write because we want to; we write because we have to.
sarcastic belief human-bondage
She had a pretty gift for quotation, which is a serviceable substitute for wit.
race silence use
If nobody spoke unless he had something to say, the human race would very soon lose the use of speech.
time memories age
What makes old age hard to bear is not the failing of one's faculties, mental and physical, but the burden of one's memories.
looks crosses bus
I'd sooner be smashed into a mangled pulp by a bus when we cross the street than look forward to a life like yours.
thinking sea ducks
I don't understand anything. Life is so strange. I feel like some one who's lived all his life by a duck-pond and suddenly is shown the sea. It makes me a little breathless, and yet it fills me with elation. I don't want to die, I want to live. I'm beginning to feel a new courage. I feel like one of those old sailors who set sail for undiscovered seas and I think my soul hankers for the unknown.
lying book heart
An author spends months writing a book, and maybe puts his heart's blood into it, and then it lies about unread till the reader has nothing else in the world to do.
children humble humility
It wasn't until late in life that I discovered how easy it is to say, 'I don't know.'