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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.

W. Somerset Maugham

I made up my mind long ago that life was too short to do anything for myself that I could pay others to do for me.
W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM

Anything Long Made Mind Myself Others Short
There is nothing so terrible as the pursuit of art by those who have no talent.
W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM

No Nothing Pursuit Talent Terrible Those
You waste a lot of time going down blind alleys if you have no one to lead you.
W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM

Alley Blind Down Lead Lot One Time Waste You
A bird in the hand was worth two in the bush, he told her, to which she retorted that a proverb was the last refuge of the mentally destitute.
W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM

Bird Bush Destitute Hand Last Mentality Proverb Refuge Restore Retorted Worth
I wish I could make you see how exciting the life of the spirit is and how rich in experience. It’s illimitable. It’s such a happy life. There’s only one thing like it, when you’re up in a plane by yourself, high, high, and only infinity surrounds you.
W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM

Excite Experience Happy High Illuminate Infinity One Plane Rich Spirit Surround
The essential element of love is a belief in its own eternity.
W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM

Belief Element Essential Eternity Love Own
Any society that values wealth above freedom will lose its freedom, and will ultimately lose its wealth as well
W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM

Freedom Lose Society Ultimately Value Wealth Well
It is dangerous to let the public behind the scenes. They are easily disillusioned and then they are angry with you, for it was the illusion they loved.
W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM

Angry Dangerous Easily Illusion Public Scene
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.
W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM

Age Bear Burden Faculty Fall Make Memory One Physical
All the words I use in my stories can be found in the dictionary-it’s just a matter of arranging them into the right sentences.
W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM

Arrange Dictionary Found Matter Right Sentence Story Use Word
Tradition is a guide and not a jailer.
W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM

Guide Jailer Tradition
I have an idea that the only thing which makes it possible to regard this world we live in without disgust is the beauty which now and then men create out of the chaos. The pictures they paint, the music they compose, the books they write, and the lives they lead.
W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM

Beauty Compose Disgust Idea Live Make Men Only Picture Possible Regard Thing World
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.
W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM

Acquire Class Culture Enter Government Grant Men More Percent Portrait Rather Scene Sixty Today Told University
Now it is a funny thing about life. If you refuse to accept anything but the best, you very often get it. If you utterly decline to make do with what you can get, then somehow or other, you are very likely to get what you want.
W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM

Accept Anything Best Funny Get Life Often Refuse Thing
Oh, it is dreadfully bitter to look at a woman whom you have loved with all your heart and soul, so that you felt you could not bear to let her out of your sight, and realize that you would not mind if you never saw her again. The tragedy of love is indifference.
W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM

Bear Bitter Could Dreadfully Indifference Love Made Mind Mistake Saw Tragedy Women
He had heard people speak contemptuously of money: he wondered if they had ever tried to do without it.
W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM

Brief Contemptuously Heard Money People Speak Wonder Wonderful

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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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.

Related Topics

Popular Authors

More W. Somerset Maugham Quotes