Any society that values wealth above freedom will lose its freedom, and will ultimately lose its wealth as well
W. SOMERSET MAUGHAMLife is so largely controlled by chance that its conduct can be but a perpetual improvisation.
More W. Somerset Maugham Quotes
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It was such a beautiful day I decided to stay in bed.
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It wasn’t until late in life that I discovered how easy it is to say, ‘I don’t know.’
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I can imagine no more comfortable frame of mind for the conduct of life than a humorous resignation.
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I personally prefer freedom of thought. But in England you get neither: you’re ground down by convention. You can’t think as you like and you can’t act as you like. That’s because it’s a democratic nation. I expect America’s worse.
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Love is only a dirty trick played on us to achieve continuation of the species.
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Beauty is an ecstasy; it is as simple as hunger.
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You can do anything in this world if you are prepared to take the consequences.
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Men seek but one thing in life — their pleasure.
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To acquire the habit of reading is to construct for yourself a refuge from almost all the miseries of life.
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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.
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If you want to eat well in England, eat three breakfasts.
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Of all these the richest in beauty is the beautiful life. That is the perfect work of art.
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Impropriety is the soul of wit.
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It’s a funny thing about life; if you refuse to accept anything but the best, you very often get it.
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He is not famous. It may be that he never will be. It may be that when his life at last comes to an end he will leave no more trace of his sojourn on earth than a stone thrown into a river leaves on the surface of the water.
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For my part I cannot believe in a God who is angry with me because I do not believe in him. I cannot believe in a God who is less tolerant than I. I cannot believe in a God who has neither humour nor common sense.
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It is not wealth one asks for, but just enough to preserve one’s dignity, to work unhampered, to be generous, frank and independent.
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Each one of us is alone in the world. He is shut in a tower of brass, and can communicate with his fellows only by signs, and the signs have no common value, so that their sense is vague and uncertain.
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In Hollywood, the women are all peaches. It makes one long for an apple occasionally.
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Now the answer … is plain, but it is so unpalatable that most men will not face it. There is no reason for life and life has no meaning.
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There’s always one who loves and one who lets himself be loved.
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I am told that today rather more than 60 per cent of the men who go to university go on a Government grant. This is a new class that has entered upon the scene. It is the white-collar proletariat. They do not go to university to acquire culture but to get a job, and when they have got one, scamp it.
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The mystic sees the ineffable, and the psychopathologist the unspeakable.
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They call beautiful a dress, a dog, a sermon; and when they are face to face with Beauty cannot recognise it.
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The secret to life is meaningless unless you discover it yourself.
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The fact that a great many people believe something is no guarantee of its truth.
W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM