Quotes from W. Somerset Maugham

Death doesn't affect the living because it has not happened yet. Death doesn't concern the dead because they have ceased to exist.

We do not write as we want, but as we can.

The passing moment is all we can be sure of; it is only common sense to extract its utmost value from it.

For the complete life, the perfect pattern includes old age as well as youth and maturity.

The world is quickly bored by the recital of misfortune, and willing avoids the sight of distress.

You learn more quickly under the guidance of experienced teachers. You waste a lot of time going down blind alleys if you have no one to lead you.

I am sick of this way of life. The weariness and sadness of old age make it intolerable. I have walked with death in hand, and death's own hand is warmer than my own. I don't wish to live any longer.

Life is really very fantastic, and one has to have a peculiar sense of humour to see the fun of it. [Virtue]

A little smoke lost in the air, that was the life of a man.

The life force is vigorous. The delight that accompanies it counter-balances all the pains and hardships that confront men. It makes life worth living.

At a dinner party one should eat wisely but not too well, and talk well but not too wisely.

Impropriety is the soul of wit.

Any nation that thinks more of its ease and comfort than its freedom will soon lose its freedom; and the ironical thing about it is that it will lose its ease and comfort too.

I'll give you my opinion of the human race in a nutshell... their heart's in the right place, but their head is a thoroughly inefficient organ.

It was such a lovely day I thought it a pity to get up.

Beauty is also a Gift of God, one of the most rare and precious, and we should be thankful if we are happy enough to possess it and thankful, if we are not, that others possess it for our pleasure.

I would sooner read a time-table or a catalogue than nothing at all. They are much more entertaining than half the novels that are written.

A dictator must fool all the people all the time and there's only one way to do that, he must also fool himself.

I don't think of the past. The only thing that matters is the everlasting present.

It is an illusion that youth is happy, an illusion of those who have lost it.

Culture is not just an ornament; it is the expression of a nation's character, and at the same time it is a powerful instrument to mould character. The end of culture is right living.

Art, if it is to be reckoned as one of the great values of life, must teach man humility, tolerance, wisdom and magnanimity. The value of art is not beauty, but right action.

The value of culture is its effect on character. It avails nothing unless it ennobles and strengthens that. Its use is for life. Its aim is not beauty but goodness.

The artist can within limits make what he likes of his life... It is only the artist, and maybe the criminal, who can make his own.