To bear failure with courage is the best proof of character that anyone can give.
W. SOMERSET MAUGHAMTo bear failure with courage is the best proof of character that anyone can give.
W. SOMERSET MAUGHAMAn unfortunate thing about this world is that the good habits are much easier to give up than the bad ones.
W. SOMERSET MAUGHAMBut it may be that the way of life that he has chosen for himself and the peculiar strength and sweetness of his character may have an ever-growing influence over his fellow men so that, long after his death perhaps, it may be realized that there lived in this age a very remarkable creature.
W. SOMERSET MAUGHAMLove is only a dirty trick played on us to achieve continuation of the species.
W. SOMERSET MAUGHAMIn France you get freedom of action: you can do what you like and nobody bothers, but you must think like everybody else. In Germany you must do what everybody else does, but you may think as you choose. They’re both very good things.
W. SOMERSET MAUGHAMOne cannot find peace in work or in pleasure, in the world or in a convent, but only in one’s soul.
W. SOMERSET MAUGHAMNow 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 MAUGHAMThe Almighty can hardly be such a fool as the churches make out.
W. SOMERSET MAUGHAMAs the cosmos are in place, so be it with your life.
W. SOMERSET MAUGHAMThere are three rules for writing a novel. Unfortunately, no one knows what they are.
W. SOMERSET MAUGHAMThe well dressed man is he whose clothes you never notice
W. SOMERSET MAUGHAMDullness is the first requisite of a good husband.
W. SOMERSET MAUGHAMDeath doesn’t affect the living because it has not happened yet. Death doesn’t concern the dead because they have ceased to exist.
W. SOMERSET MAUGHAMTo acquire the habit of reading is to construct for yourself a refuge from almost all the miseries of life.
W. SOMERSET MAUGHAMOne can be very much in love with a woman without wishing to spend the rest of one’s life with her.
W. SOMERSET MAUGHAMI 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