One can be very much in love with a woman without wishing to spend the rest of one’s life with her.
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.
More W. Somerset Maugham Quotes
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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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Most people are such fools that it is really no great compliment to say that someone is above the average.
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If a nation values anything more than freedom, it will lose its freedom; and the irony of it is that if it is comfort or money that it values more, it will lose that too.
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The love that lasts longest is the love that is never returned.
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People ask for criticism, but they only want praise.
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An unfortunate thing about this world is that the good habits are much easier to give up than the bad ones.
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When you’re eighteen your emotions are violent, but they’re not durable.
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Of all the hokum with which this country [America] is riddled, the most odd is the common notion that it is free of class distinctions.
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Life wouldn’t be worth living if I worried over the future as well as the present. When things are at their worst I find something always happens.
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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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It wasn’t until late in life that I discovered how easy it is to say, ‘I don’t know.’
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Beauty is something wonderful and strange that the artist fashions out of the chaos of the world in the torment of his soul. And when he has made it, it is not given to all to know it.
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If it is necessary sometimes to lie to others, it is always despicable to lie to oneself.
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The secret to life is meaningless unless you discover it yourself.
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If you don’t change your beliefs, your life will be like this forever. Is that good news?
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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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Throw yourself into the hurly-burly of life. It doesn’t matter how many mistakes you make, what unhappiness you have to undergo. It is all your material …
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You will find as you grow older that the first thing needful to make the world a tolerable place to live in is to recognize the inevitable selfishness of humanity.
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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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Art is a manifestation of emotion, and emotion speaks a language that all may understand.
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The crown of literature is poetry. It is its end and aim. It is the sublimest activity of the human mind. It is the achievement of beauty and delicacy. The writer of prose can only step aside when the poet passes.
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In 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.
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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 future will one day be the present and will seem as unimportant as the present does now.
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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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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.
W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM