W. Somerset Maugham
W. Somerset Maugham
William Somerset Maugham CHwas a British playwright, novelist and short story writer. He was among the most popular writers of his era and reputedly the highest paid author during the 1930s...
NationalityBritish
ProfessionPlaywright
Date of Birth25 January 1874
cute chance life-is
Life is so largely controlled by chance that its conduct can be but a perpetual improvisation.
inspirational funny life
It's a funny thing about life; if you refuse to accept anything but the best, you very often get it.
love life important
The important thing was to love rather than to be loved.
love life change
The great tragedy of life is not that men perish, but that they cease to love.
love men knows
Love is what happens to men and women who don't know each other.
beauty simple smell
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.
steps poet prose
The writer of prose can only step aside when the poet passes.
time past thinking
I don't think of the past. The only thing that matters is the everlasting present.
beauty names ideals
The ideal has many names, and beauty is but one of them.
love-you mean men
Was it necessary to tell me that you wanted nothing in the world but me?' The corners of his mouth drooped peevishly. Oh, my dear, it's rather hard to take quite literally the things a man says when he's in love with you.' Didn't you mean them?' At the moment.
love-is men giving
For men, as a rule, love is but an episode which takes place among the other affairs of the day, and the emphasis laid on it in novels gives it an importance which is untrue to life. There are few men to whom it is the most important thing in the world, and they are not the very interesting ones; even women, with whom the subject is of paramount interest, have a contempt for them.
happy-life space wish
I wish I could make you see how much fuller the life I offer you is than anything you have a conception of. I wish I could make you see how exciting the life of the spirit is and how rich in experience. It's illimitable. It's such a happy life. There's only one thing like it, when you're up in a plane by yourself, high, high, and only infinity surrounds you. You're intoxicated by the boundless space.
lovely self-pity get-up
It was such a lovely day I thought it a pity to get up.
wise philosophy men
It needs a good deal of philosophy not to be mortified by the thought of persons who have voluntarily abandoned everything that for the most of us makes life worth living and are devoid of envy of what they have missed. I have never made up my mind whether they are fools or wise men.