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 MAUGHAMThe great tragedy of life is not that men perish, but that they cease to love.
More W. Somerset Maugham Quotes
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If you want to eat well in England, eat three breakfasts.
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One cannot find peace in work or in pleasure, in the world or in a convent, but only in one’s soul.
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It’s no use crying over spilt milk, because all of the forces of the universe were bent on spilling it.
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Oh, it’s always the same,’ she sighed, ‘if you want men to behave well to you, you must be beastly to them; if you treat them decently they make you suffer for it.
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The ability to quote is a serviceable substitute for wit.
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I want a girl because I want to bring her up so that she shan’t make the mistakes I’ve made.
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The secret to life is meaningless unless you discover it yourself.
W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM -
You learn more quickly under the guidance of experienced teachers.
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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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Don’t wait for experience to come to you; go out after experience. Experience is your material.
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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.
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How can I be reasonable? To me our love was everything and you were my whole life. It is not very pleasant to realize that to you it was only an episode.
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When you are reconciled to the fact that each is for himself in the world you will ask less from your fellows. They will not disappoint you, and you will look upon them more charitably.
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Why should you think that beauty, which is the most precious thing in the world, lies like a stone on the beach for the careless passer-by to pick up idly?
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Of all these the richest in beauty is the beautiful life. That is the perfect work of art.
W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM






