Quotes from W. Somerset Maugham

Man has always sacrificed truth to his vanity, comfort and advantage. He lives... by make-believe.

Is it a reasonable thing, I ask you, for a grown man to run about and hit a ball? Poker's the only game fit for a grown man. Then, your hand is against every man's, and every man's is against yours. Teamwork? Who ever made a fortune by teamwork? There's only one way to make a fortune, and that's to down the fellow who's up against you.

Men have an extraordinarily erroneous opinion of their position in nature and the error is ineradicable.

Marriage is a very good thing, but I think it's a mistake to make a habit out of it.

No one can be a humbug for five-and-twenty years. Hypocrisy is the most difficult and nerve-racking vice that any man can pursue; it needs an unceasing vigilance and a rare detachment of spirit. It cannot, like adultery or gluttony, be practiced at spare moments; it is a whole-time job.

There is a sort of man who pays no attention to his good actions, but is tormented by his bad ones. This is the type that most often writes about himself.

You know what the critics are. If you tell the truth they only say you're cynical and it does an author no good to get a reputation for cynicism.

As lovers, the difference between men and women is that women can love all day long, but men only at times.

Only a mediocre person is always at his best.

It wasn't until late in life that I discovered how easy it is to say "I don't know."

She [Sadie Thompson] gathered herself together. No one could describe the scorn of her expression or the contemptuous hatred she put into her answer."You men! You filthy dirty pigs! You're all the same, all of you. Pigs! Pigs!"

There are three rules for writing a novel. Unfortunately, no one knows what they are.

Let us develop the resources of our land, call forth its powers, build up its institutions, promote all its great interests, and see whether we also, in our day and generation, may not perform something worthy to be remembered.

I've always been interested in people, but I've never liked them.

Do you know that conversation is one of the greatest pleasures in life? But it wants leisure.

I've met so many people, often the scum of the earth, and found them, you know, quite decent. I am an uncomfortable stranger to moral indignation.

People ask you for criticism, but they only want praise.

Every production of an artist should be the expression of an adventure of his soul.

Beauty is an ecstasy it is as simple as hunger. There is really nothing to be said about it. It is like the perfume of a rose: you can smell it and that is all.

One can be very much in love with a woman without wishing to spend the rest of one's life with her.

He did not care if she was heartless, vicious and vulgar, stupid and grasping, he loved her. He would rather have misery with one than happiness with the other.

When you choose your friends, don't be short-changed by choosing personality over character.

The only important thing in a book is the meaning that it has for you.

Imagination grows by exercise, and contrary to common belief, is more powerful in the mature than in the young.