To acquire the habit of reading is to construct for yourself a refuge from almost all the miseries of life.
W. SOMERSET MAUGHAMWhat does democracy come down to? The persuasive power of slogans invented by wily self-seeking politicians.
More W. Somerset Maugham Quotes
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But 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.
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He had heard people speak contemptuously of money: he wondered if they had ever tried to do without it.
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You waste a lot of time going down blind alleys if you have no one to lead you.
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The complete life, the perfect pattern, includes old age as well as youth and maturity.
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There are three rules for writing a novel. Unfortunately, no one knows what they are.
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What does democracy come down to? The persuasive power of slogans invented by wily self-seeking politicians.
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Simplicity and naturalness are the truest marks of distinction.
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Love is only a dirty trick played on us to achieve continuation of the species.
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Sometimes people carry to such perfection the mask they have assumed that in due course they actually become the person they seem.
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The world is hard and cruel. We are here none knows why, and we go none knows whither.
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if you’d ever had a grown-up daughter you’d know that by comparison a bucking steer is easy to manage. And as to knowing what goes on inside her – well, it’s much better to pretend you’re the simple, innocent old fool she almost certainly takes you for.
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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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I don’t think of the past. The only thing that matters is the everlasting present.
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We must be very humble. We must see the beauty of quietness. We must go through life so inconspicuously that Fate does not notice us. And let us seek the love of simple, ignorant people. Their ignorance is better than all our knowledge.
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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.
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The most valuable thing I have learned from life is to regret nothing.
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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.
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There are two good things in life – freedom of thought and freedom of action.
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Anyone can tell the truth, but only very few of us can make epigrams.
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The tragedy of love is not death or separation. How long do you think it would have been before one or other of them ceased to care?
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Death doesn’t affect the living because it has not happened yet. Death doesn’t concern the dead because they have ceased to exist.
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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.
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There’s always one who loves and one who lets himself be loved.
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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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There is nothing so degrading as the constant anxiety about one’s means of livelihood.
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If you want to eat well in England, eat three breakfasts.
W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM