We do not write because we want to; we write because we have to.
W. SOMERSET MAUGHAMWhen you’re eighteen your emotions are violent, but they’re not durable.
More W. Somerset Maugham Quotes
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From the earliest time the old have rubbed it into the young that they are wiser, and before the young had discovered what nonsense this was they were old too, and it profited them to carry on the imposture.
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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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The Almighty can hardly be such a fool as the churches make out.
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You learn more quickly under the guidance of experienced teachers.
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You demand unselfishness from others, which is a preposterous claim that they should sacrifice their desires to yours. Why should they?
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Now the answer … is plain, but it is so unpalatable that most men will not face it. There is no reason for life and life has no meaning.
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The ability to quote is a serviceable substitute for wit.
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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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Life is so largely controlled by chance that its conduct can be but a perpetual improvisation.
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Men seek but one thing in life — their pleasure.
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Impropriety is the soul of wit.
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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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I don’t think of the past. The only thing that matters is the everlasting present.
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The important thing was to love rather than to be loved.
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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.
W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM