William Somerset Maugham

It's no use crying over spilt milk, because all of the forces of the universe were bent on spilling it.

The rain fell alike upon the just and upon the unjust, and for nothing was there a why and a wherefore.

Life wouldn't be worth living if I worried over the future as well as the present. When things are at their worst I find something always happens.

He had doubts about the utility of examination on subjects which had been crammed for the occasion. He wanted common sense.

Like all weak men he laid an exaggerated stress on not changing one's mind.

It is an illusion that youth is happy, an illusion of those who have lost it; but the young know they are wretched, for they are full of the truthless ideals which have been instilled into them, and each time they come in contact with the real they are bruised and wounded.

I do not confer praise or blame: I accept. I am the measure of all things. I am the centre of the world.

Art... is merely the refuge which the ingenious have invented, when they were supplied with food and women, to escape the tediousness of life.

You know, there are two good things in life, freedom of thought and freedom of action.