Sometimes people carry to such perfection the mask they have assumed that in due course they actually become the person they seem.
W. SOMERSET MAUGHAMSometimes people carry to such perfection the mask they have assumed that in due course they actually become the person they seem.
W. SOMERSET MAUGHAMWhat makes old age hard to bear is not the failing of one’s faculties, mental and physical, but the burden of one’s memories.
W. SOMERSET MAUGHAMIf you don’t change your beliefs, your life will be like this forever. Is that good news?
W. SOMERSET MAUGHAMOh, it is dreadfully bitter to look at a woman whom you have loved with all your heart and soul, so that you felt you could not bear to let her out of your sight, and realize that you would not mind if you never saw her again. The tragedy of love is indifference.
W. SOMERSET MAUGHAMIt wasn’t until late in life that I discovered how easy it is to say, ‘I don’t know.’
W. SOMERSET MAUGHAMWe know our friends by their defects rather than by their merits.
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 MAUGHAMPeople ask for criticism, but they only want praise.
W. SOMERSET MAUGHAMAnyone can tell the truth, but only very few of us can make epigrams.
W. SOMERSET MAUGHAMThe only important thing in a book is the meaning that it has for you.
W. SOMERSET MAUGHAMI can imagine no more comfortable frame of mind for the conduct of life than a humorous resignation.
W. SOMERSET MAUGHAMWhy 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?
W. SOMERSET MAUGHAMWe are not the same persons this year as last; nor are those we love. It is a happy chance if we, changing, continue to love a changed person.
W. SOMERSET MAUGHAMWe 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 MAUGHAMThere are times when I look over the various parts of my character with perplexity.
W. SOMERSET MAUGHAMYou waste a lot of time going down blind alleys if you have no one to lead you.
W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM