W. Somerset Maugham Quotes

1874 – 1965

Be inspired by our collection of W. Somerset Maugham Quotes. He was a British novelist, playwright, and short-story writer. During the 1930’s it is reported that he was the highest paid author in the world.He was born in Paris, however, at age 10 he was orphaned and went to England to live with his uncle. He was successful in his studies and was qualified as a doctor, but gave it up to fullfil his passion of writing.

I don’t think of the past. The only thing that matters is the everlasting present.
W. Somerset Maugham
Inspirational Quotes |

Imagination grows by exercise, and contrary to common belief, is more powerful in the mature than in the young.
W. Somerset Maugham
Imagination |

Death ends all things and so is the comprehensive conclusion of a story, but marriage finishes it very properly too and the sophisticated are ill-advised to sneer at what is by convention termed a happy ending.
W. Somerset Maugham, The Razor’s Edge
Marriage |

When you choose your friends, don’t be short-changed by choosing personality over character.
W. Somerset Maugham
Friend |

Only a mediocre person is always at his best.
W. Somerset Maugham
Words of Encouragment |

For men and women are not only themselves; they are also the region in which they were born, the city apartment or the farm in which they learnt to walk, the games they played as children, the old wives’ tales they overheard, the food they ate, the schools they attended, the sports they followed, the poets they read, and the God they believed in. It is all these things that have made them what they are and these are things that you can’t come to know by hearsay, you can only know them if you have lived them.
W. Somerset Maugham, The Razor’s Edge
Character |

Dying is a very dull, dreary affair. And my advice to you is to have nothing whatever to do with it.
W. Somerset Maugham
Death |

Nothing in the world is permanent, and we’re foolish when we ask anything to last, but surely we’re still more foolish not to take delight in it while we have it. If change is of the essence of existence one would have thought it only sensible to make it the premise of our philosophy.
W. Somerset Maugham
Quotes about Change |

The fact that a great many people believe something is no guarantee of its truth.
W. Somerset Maugham
Truth |

It’s a funny thing about life; if you refuse to accept anything but the best, you very often get it.
W. Somerset Maugham
Life |

The important thing was to love rather than to be loved.
W. Somerset Maugham
Love |

Life wouldn’t be worth living if I worried over the future as well as the present.
W. Somerset Maugham
Worry |

It wasn’t until late in life that I discovered how easy it is to say “I don’t know.”
W. Somerset Maugham
Encouraging |

Beauty is also a Gift of God, one of the most rare and precious, and we should be thankful if we are happy enough to possess it and thankful, if we are not, that others possess it for our pleasure.
W. Somerset Maugham, The Painted Veil
Beauty |

The unfortunate thing about this world is that the good habits are much easier to give up than the bad ones.
W. Somerset Maugham
Good |

Sometimes people carry to such perfection the mask they have assumed that in due course they actually become the person they seem.
W. Somerset Maugham
Being Yourself |

I daresay one profits more by the mistakes one makes off one’s own bat than by doing the right thing on somebody’s else advice.
W. Somerset Maugham
Mistakes |

I can imagine no more comfortable frame of mind for the conduct of life than a humorous resignation.
W. Somerset Maugham
Humor |

The common idea that success spoils people by making them vain, egotistical 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.
W. Somerset Maugham
Success |

People ask for criticism, but they only want praise.
W. Somerset Maugham
Appreciation |

Like all weak men he laid an exaggerated stress on not changing one’s mind.
W. Somerset Maugham
Stress |

The passing moment is all we can be sure of; it is only common sense to extract its utmost value from it.ï¿½
W. Somerset Maugham
Time |

You are not angry with people when you laugh at them. Humor teaches tolerance.
W. Somerset Maugham
Tolerance |

We are foolish and sentimental and melodramatic at twenty-five, but if we weren’t perhaps we should be less wise at fifty.
W. Somerset Maugham
Wise |

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.
W. Somerset Maugham
Book |

Common sense and nature will do a lot to make the pilgrimage of life not too difficult.
W. Somerset Maugham
Common Sense |

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