William Somerset Maugham

Quotes

...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.
p. 137
Cakes And Ale
Self-doubt, which is the artist's bitterest enemy.
p. 153
The Moon And Sixpence
I don't think of the past. The only thing that matters is the everlasting present.
p. 79
The Moon And Sixpence
Life isn't long enough for love and art.
p. 80
The Moon And Sixpence
Of course it was cause and effect, but in the necessity with which follows the other lay all tragedy of life.
Of Human Bondage
I had not yet learnt how contradictory is human nature; I did not know how much pose there is in the sincere, how much baseness in the noble, or how much goodness in the reprobate.
p. 39
The Moon And Sixpence
When I read a book I seem to read it with my eyes only, but now and then I come across a passage, perhaps only a phrase, which has a meaning for me, and it becomes part of me.
Of Human Bondage
There's always one who loves and one who lets himself be loved.
Of Human Bondage
But when all was said the important thing was to love rather than to be loved.
Of Human Bondage
Men seek but one thing in life — their pleasure.
Of Human Bondage
Follow your inclinations with due regard to the policeman round the corner.
Of Human Bondage
One of the falsest of proverbs is that you must lie on the bed that you have made. The experience of life shows that people are constantly doing things which must lead to disaster, and yet by some chance manage to evade the result of their folly.
p. 119
The Moon And Sixpence