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
foolish forty man million people wise
If forty million people say a foolish thing it does not become a wise one, but the wise man is foolish to give them the lie.
bitter common failure people spoils success
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. Failure makes people bitter and cruel.
hate people treasure
Unconsciously, perhaps, we treasure the power we have over people by their regard for our opinion of them, and we hate those upon whom we have no such influence.
people would-be world
Considering how foolishly people act and how pleasantly they prattle, perhaps it would be better for the world if they talked more and did less.
heart thinking people
I think I was a little disappointed in her. I expected then people to be more of a piece than I do now, and I was distressed to find so much vindictiveness in so charming a creature. I did not realize how motley are the qualities that go to make up a human being. Now I am well aware that pettiness and grandeur, malice and charity, hatred and love, can find place side by side in the same human heart.
people acting elements
The worst of having so much tact was that you never quite knew whether other people were acting naturally or being tactful too. [The human element]
friendship ties people
When married people don't get on they can separate, but if they're not married it's impossible. It's a tie that only death can sever.
book reading people
I never met an author who admitted that people did not buy his book because it was dull.
people important elements
People are always a little disconcerted when you don't recognize them, they are so important to themselves, it is a shock to discover of what small importance they are to others. [The human element]
people laughing tolerance
You are not angry with people when you laugh at them. Humour teaches tolerance, and the humorist, with a smile and perhaps a sigh, is more likely to shrug his shoulders than to condemn.
judging people want
Our natural egoism leads us to judge people by their relations to ourselves. We want them to be certain things to us, and for us that is what they are; because the rest of them is no good to us, we ignore it.
hero talking people
Things were easier for the old novelists who saw people all of a piece. Speaking generally, their heroes were good through and through, their villains wholly bad.
people chance mets
Almost all the people who’ve had the most effect on me I seem to have met by chance, yet looking back it seems as though I couldn’t but have met them.
people shady sunny
The Riviera isn't only a sunny place for shady people.