It was a cold morning, and he shivered a little; but he had been taught by his uncle that his prayers were more acceptable to God if he said them in his nightshirt than if he waited till he was dressed. This did not surprise him, for he was beginning to realise that he was the creature of a God who appreciated the discomfort of his worshippers.
W. Somerset Maugham
Related He knew only that his child was his warrant. He said: If he is not the word of God God never spoke. CORMAC MCCARTHY He didn't. You know, he said he was being provocative. He has a background in philosophy and the ide... JAKE TAPPER They were talking more distantly than if they were strangers who had just met, for if they had been ... W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM C.J. had once believed that he understood who he was, what he was about, what he was capable of. But... ROY L. PICKERING JR. Relaxing, experiencing nature and laughing are what rejuvenate me and make me feel happy. I believe ... SUI HE Since raised blood pressure is the major cause of stroke, the blood pressure lowering effect of pota... FENG HE As a young child, I suffered from poor health. My parents encouraged me to swim, which really improv... SUI HE I like to find old things and I picked up that arrowhead in tears, that broken point ... LI HE These findings provide strong support for the recommendations encouraging the public to consume more... FENG HE The average fruit and vegetable intake in most developed countries is about three servings per day, ... FENG HE They are the Chinese heroes. I am happy for their performance and the result is not the most importa... HE ZHENLIANG This will be conducive to the development of Sino-US relations and China's relationships with the re... HE YAFEI The best way to resolve Sino-US trade imbalance is to expand bilateral trade cooperation. Restrictin... HE YAFEI They are sorry there is no more Soviet Union and they don't know how to act. HE YAFEI We are willing to import more U.S. goods. HE YAFEI Even when he's making dumplings with peasants, he speaks memorized words and sounds like a People's ... HE WEIFANG This is a critical moment. There is a lot of opposition to continuing the reforms as they are today. HE WEIFANG I unequivocally state the wish that the Communist Party should become two parties. HE WEIFANG The situation exists in almost every well-known Chinese university. HE WEIFANG The government really wants to slow down investment, but it can't control local governments who have... HE FAN The new managed floating currency regime is just an interim system. There is a chance of a further w... HE FAN Eventually, we found that the situation there was more serious than what we imagined. HE CHANGCHUI Part of our mission is to find out what kind of assistance is required. HE CHANGCHUI He looked like like he was still favoring it a little bit this morning when he was out on the floor.... BRIAN HILL He was a hero to his valet, who bullied him, and a terror to most of his relations, whom he bullied ... OSCAR WILDE Feast of the Conversion of Paul The God of Pharisaism was like the God of the Deists, He stood al... C. H. DODD ...He was a greater craftsman even than Isaac, and he knew it, and so, presently, did Isaac. ELIZABETH GOUDGE He was without any comforts of God — no feeling that God loved him — no feeling that God pi... ROBERT MURRAY MCCHEYNE I asked him if it were a mirage, and he said yes. I said it was a dream, and he agreed, But said it ... NEIL GAIMAN He had read much, if one considers his long life; but his contemplation was much more than his readi... JOHN AUBREY He had read much, if one considers his long life; but his contemplation was much more than his readi... ISAAC ASIMOV Over time, there would be less and less of him and more of the tumor. His brain was being eaten by G... MAX BARRY This love was a torment, and he resented bitterly the subjugation in which it held him; he was a pri... W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM Trent was a complete gentleman and waited patiently for me to speak with him. When he did get his ch... DOUG HOWARD His habit of reading isolated him: it became such a need that after being in company for some time h... W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM And in an essential way, this was what he was most ashamed of: not his poor understanding of sex, no... HANYA YANAGIHARA There were so many different moods and impressions that he wished to express in verse. He felt them ... JAMES JOYCE He just said that it was something he had to do. I think it was a pretty big surprise for everybody.... HERBERT WARREN They that deny a God destroy man's nobility; for certainly man is of kin to the beasts by his body; ... FRANCIS BACON They that deny a God destroy man's nobility, for certainly man is of kin to the beasts by his body; ... FRANCIS BACON SR. If a man say, 'I love God,' and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his... JOHN THE APOSTLE Guy suddenly wanted to scald his face, gain fifty pounds, shear his hair. He was sick of his beauty,... EDMUND WHITE He could breathe more freely in a lighter air. He was responsible only to himself for the things he ... W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM He asked if we could sit in private. He had this letter. It explained his life, where he was from, h... BECKY GARLAND She was a creature of the deep, and there she must return, or perish. Toby understood that, but it h... JULIET MARILLIER And if Amsterdam was hell, and if hell was a memory, then he realized that perhaps there was some pu... PAUL AUSTER It was a comet. The boy saw the comet and he felt as though his life had meaning. And when it went a... LUCAS SCOTT When he saw the little girl's body, he was just destroyed, ... He was holding his head in his hands ... COLIN TAYLOR started to tell his friends that he had not been the inventor of the ideas about infinity that he ha... GEORG CANTOR This was not adversarial at all. He called me and said he appreciated the fact we gave him his first... BERNIE BICKERSTAFF It was strictly his decision. We did his evaluation before Christmas, and he said he was thinking ab... GARY CLAUSEN At first, man was enslaved by the gods. But he broke their chains. Then he was enslaved by the kings... AYN RAND To his surprise he felt a moment of regret, of sadness that his quest for his mother and father woul... J.G. BALLARD He gave me a hug and said he appreciated the visitors. He had a smile on his face, but he was devast... DARLEEN SIMONSEN And Harry saw very clearly as he sat there under the hot sun how people who cared about him had stoo... J.K. ROWLING The telephone was not his favorite object, and more than once he had considered getting rid of his. ... PAUL AUSTER He really did live in two different worlds. He was real good at his job. He knew engineering. It cam... ELLIOT JACOBOWITZ As they scuffled in the grass, Adam closed his eyes and leaned his head back. He could nearly scry j... MAGGIE STIEFVATER As productive and brilliant as he was, he was also self-destructive, ... He said God gave him MS to ... JENNIFER LEE He has probably been a little bit sharper this year. But his velocity was there when he needed it, h... JOE MADDON She stood in his kitchen, watching him toy with the ring in his lip. It wasn't quite that he was bit... MELISSA MARR What was his surprise and his joy when, on looking himself over, he saw that he was no longer a Mari... CARLO COLLODI His father in law, who was as old as the century, had just retired and was living in a country house... HARRY MULISCH Keith had it a little better than most kids here because he had two parents in the same household wh... JEFF HILL He used to hide his true self because he feared people wouldn’t like him, or would judge him for b... SCOTT STABILE God was happy without humans before they were made; he would have continued happy had he simply dest... J.I. PACKER The marquis de Carabas was not a good man, and he knew himself well enough to be perfectly certain t... NEIL GAIMAN If he had a reason for preferring Liberalism to the Conservatism of many in his set, it was not that... LEO TOLSTOY If he played in a system where he had to constantly have his back to the basket, he would not have b... DAVE ROGERS The real hero is always a hero by mistake; he dreams of being an honest coward like everybody else. ... UMBERTO ECO Where d'ye think he is now?" Jenny said suddenly. "Ian, I mean." He glanced at the house, then ... DIANA GABALDON It was in his best interest to acknowledge all of it, even though some of it was more than he said h... C. MAC HUNTER [He added,] Well-dressed, fit, and vigorous for his 73 years, he was a tough political partisan. He... BOB RAE He was real close to his family, his friends and God. He just wanted to help people. He had a very c... GARY MACE You say that your fare told you that he was a detective?" "Yes, he did." "When did he say ... ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE He had a fever when he was in Spain,
And when the fit was on him, I did mark
How he did shake.... WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE He was nasty. He had some real nice stuff. He was hitting his spots, and he ended up getting a W. BRANDON PHILLIPS There was no meaning in life, and man by living served no end. It was immaterial whether he was born... W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM he’d spent his whole life trying to make God love him—and that this didn’t matter in the sligh... THOMAS MALLON And seeing one of them suffer wrong, he defended him, and avenged him that was oppressed, and smote ... BIBLE He had more velocity on his fastball, his changeup was slower, and he had sharper breaking stuff, ..... TODD PRATT Sanchez had his game on. All of his pitchers were working pretty good. His fastball at the end was h... LUIS DORANTE It wasn't as though he didn't have choices. He could have expanded his career, maybe further it with... BOB FULLER He was a tubby little chap who looked as if he had been poured into his clothes and had forgotten to... P. G. [SIR PELHAM GRENVILLE] WODEHOUSE He ran as he'd never run before, with neither hope nor despair. He ran because the world was divided... KARL MARLANTES The fact that he had broken his oath more times than there were years intervening did not trouble hi... ROBERT A. HEINLEIN God came down on His day of Resurrection and took His angel. Before he was mine, he was His. JOANNE SANABRIA She frowned, and the effect was so pretty he wondered if he was going mad. Why did he find this cran... ROS BAXTER When I was young I had an elderly friend who used often to ask me to stay with him in the country. H... W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM To the rich man, Lazarus was part of the landscape. If ever he did notice him, it never struck him t... WILLIAM BARCLAY Her scent hit him. For a second, he could only breathe it deep into his lungs,his Fae instincts roar... SARAH J. MAAS He was Mr. Clean; he was every woman's dream. All his glasses were always perfectly arranged and the... CHRISTOPHER PLOURD The first one I was real close. You've got to give Henry a lot of credit. He fought it all the way d... KEENAN MCCARDELL A broom that was almost never used was leaned up against the wall. He took it and started to sweep. ... JOHN AJVIDE LINDQVIST You may fancy the Lord had His own power to fall back upon. But that would have been to Him just the... GEORGE MACDONALD Slowly, very slowly, he sat up, and as he did so he felt more alive, and more aware of his own livin... J.K. ROWLING [He said] that it was a great delusion to think that the times of prayer ought to differ from other ... BROTHER LAWRENCE He felt that the children brought him great pleasure. His daughter, who is a dancer and choreographe... CELIA JACOBOWITZ A telkhine was hunched over a console, but he was so involved with his work, he didn't notice us. He... RICK RIORDAN He looked pretty good. He was D. Wade. If anything, [he was] a little sluggish for the most part. Bu... JAMES POSEY
More W. Somerset Maugham
The love that lasts longest is the love that is never returned. W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM What makes old age hard to bear is not the failing of one's faculties, mental and physical, but ... W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM Writing is the supreme solace. W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM It's no good trying to keep up old friendships. It's painful for both sides. The fact is, on... W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM We learn resignation not by our own suffering, but by the suffering of others. W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM Like all weak men he laid an exaggerated stress on not changing one's mind. W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM I'll give you my opinion of the human race in a nutshell... their heart's in the right place... W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM In the country the darkness of night is friendly and familiar, but in a city, with its blaze of ligh... W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM It's very hard to be a gentleman and a writer. W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM When you choose your friends, don't be short-changed by choosing personality over character. W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM An unfortunate thing about this world is that the good habits are much easier to give up than the ba... W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM The essence of the beautiful is unity in variety. W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM It's a funny thing about life; if you refuse to accept anything but the best, you very often get... W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM We are not the same persons this year as last; nor are those we love. It is a happy chance if we, ch... W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM Tolerance is another word for indifference. W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM My own belief is that there is hardly anyone whose sexual life, if it were broadcast, would not fill... W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM Death doesn't affect the living because it has not happened yet. Death doesn't concern the dead beca... W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM At a dinner party one should eat wisely but not too well, and talk well but not too wisely. W SOMERSET MAUGHAM It is unfair to expect a politician to live in private up to the statements he makes in public. W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM A man who is a politician at forty is a statesman at three score and ten. It is at this age, when he... W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM We know our friends by their defects rather than their merits. W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM I learnt that men were moved by a savage egoism, that love was only the dirty trick nature played on... W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM Love is what happens to a man and woman who don't know each other. W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM Truth is not only stranger than fiction, it is more telling. To know that a thing actually happened ... W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM There is a sort of man who pays no attention to his good actions, but is tormented by his bad ones. ... W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM For if the proper study of mankind is man, it is evidently more sensible to occupy yourself with the... W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM It's very hard to be a gentleman and a writer. W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM The trouble with young writers is that they are all in their sixties. W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM The writer is more concerned to know than to judge. W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM There are three rules for writing the novel. Unfortunately no one knows what they are. W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM Habits in writing as in life are only useful if they are broken as soon as they cease to be advantag... W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM There are two good things in life -- freedom of thought and freedom of action. W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM Any nation that thinks more of its ease and comfort than its freedom will soon lose its freedom; and... W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM If a nation values anything more than freedom, it will lose its freedom, and the irony of it is that... W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM The Americans, who are the most efficient people on the earth, have carried [phrase-making] to such ... W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM A bird in the hand was worth two in the bush, he told her, to which she retorted that a proverb was ... W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM I am told that today rather more than 60 per cent of the men who go to university go on a Government... W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM I have an idea that the only thing which makes it possible to regard this world we live in without d... W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM You're beginning to dislike me, aren't you? Well, dislike me. It doesn't make any difference to me n... W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM In the first place it's not true that people improve as you know them better: they don't. That's why... W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM When a woman loves you she's not satisfied until she possesses your soul. Because she's weak, she ha... W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM To acquire the habit of reading is to construct for yourself a refuge from almost all the miseries o... W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM If forty million people say a foolish thing it does not become a wise one, but the wise man is fooli... W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM Men have an extraordinarily erroneous opinion of their position in nature; and the error is ineradic... W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM If you want to eat well in England, eat three breakfasts. W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM The great critic...must be a philosopher, for from philosophy he will learn serenity, impartiality, ... W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM Perfection has one grave defect. It is apt to be dull. W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM Perfection is what American women expect to find in their husbands... but English women only hope to... W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM American women expect to find in their husbands a perfection that English women only hope to find in... W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM Perfection is a trifle dull. It is not the least of life's ironies that this, which we all aim at, i... W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM I've always been interested in people, but I've never liked them. W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM It is well known that Beauty does not look with a good grace on the timid advances of Humor. W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM You are not angry with people when you laugh at them. Humor teaches tolerance. W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM The Americans who are the most efficient people on earth...have invented so wide a range of pithy an... W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM Few misfortunes can befall a boy which bring worse consequences than to have a really affectionate m... W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM The ideal has many names, and beauty is but one of them. W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM Beauty is an ecstasy; it is as simple as hunger. There is really nothing to be said about it. It is ... W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM No one can write a best seller by trying to. He must write with complete sincerity; the clich?s that... W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM We seek pitifully to convey to others the treasures of our heart, but they have not the power to acc... W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM Common sense and nature will do a lot to make the pilgrimage of life not too difficult. W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM Common-sense appears to be only another name for the thoughtlessness of the unthinking. It is made o... W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM Lady Hodmarsh and the duchess immediately assumed the clinging affability that persons of rank assum... W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM It seems that the creative faculty and the critical faculty cannot exist together in their highest p... W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM What has influenced my life more than any other single thing has been my stammer. Had I not stammere... W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM No egoism is so insufferable as that of the Christian with regard to his soul. W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM Sometimes a man hits upon a place to which he mysteriously feels that he belongs. W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM Imagination grows by exercise, and contrary to common belief, is more powerful in the mature than in... W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM People who ask for your criticism want only praise. W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM You know what the critics are. If you tell the truth they only say you're cynical and it does an aut... W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM It is salutary to train oneself to be no more affected by censure than by praise. W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM It is dangerous to let the public behind the scenes. They are easily disillusioned and then they are... W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM It's a funny thing about life: if you refuse to accept anything but the best, you very often get it. W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM The unfortunate thing about this world is that the good habits are much easier to give up than the b... W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM Only a mediocre person is always at his best. W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM There is no explanation for evil. It must be looked upon as a necessary part of the order of the uni... W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM Sentimentality is the only sentiment that rubs you the wrong way. W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM I made up my mind long ago that life was too short to do anything for myself that I could pay others... W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM The future will one day be the present and will seem as unimportant as the present does now. W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM The world is quickly bored by the recital of misfortune, and willing avoids the sight of distress. W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM Like all weak men he laid an exaggerated stress on not changing one's mind. W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM Tradition is a guide and not a jailer. W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM You know that the Tasmanians, who never committed adultery, are now extinct. W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM Hypocrisy is the most difficult and nerve-racking vice that any man can pursue; it needs an unceasin... W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM From the earliest times the old have rubbed it into the young that they are wiser than they, and bef... W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM The ability to quote is a serviceable substitute for wit. W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM Anyone can tell the truth, but only very few of us can make epigrams. W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM You can do anything in this world if you are prepares to take the consequences. W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM Has it occurred to you that transmigration is at once an explanation and a justification of the evil... W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM Money is like a sixth sense, and you can't make use of the other five without it. W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM Wives are people who feel they don't dance enough. W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM With the fearful strain that is on me night and day, if I did not laugh I should die. W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM It is not true that suffering ennobles the character; happiness does that sometimes, but suffering... W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM Excess on occasion is exhilarating. It prevents moderation from acquiring the deadening effect of ... W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM There is no explanation for evil. It must be looked upon as a necessary part of the order of the ... W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM We are not the same persons this year as last; nor are those we love. It is a happy chance if we, ... W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM When you choose your friends, don't be short-changed by choosing personality over character. W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM The well-dressed man is he whose clothes you never notice. W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM I would sooner read a timetable or a catalog than nothing at all. W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM For the memory of love is sweet, though the love itself were in vain. And what I have lost of pleasu... W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM Perfection is what American women expect to find in their husbands... but English women only hope ... W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM The end of culture is right living. W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM The ability to quote is a serviceable substitute for wit. W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM It is not true that suffering ennobles the character; happiness does that sometimes, but suffering, ... W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM Death is a very dull, dreary affair, and my advice to you is to have nothing whatever to do with it. W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM I knew that suffering did not enoble; it degraded. It made men selfish, petty and suspicious. It abs... W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM A woman can forgive a man for the harm he does her...but she can never forgive him for the sacrifice... W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM The average American can get into the kingdom of heaven much more easily than he can get into the Bo... W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM When you're eighteen your emotions are violent, but they're not durable. W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM It is not wealth one asks for, but just enough to preserve one's dignity, to work unhampered, to be ... W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM You learn more quickly under the guidance of experienced teachers. You waste a lot of time going dow... W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM I don't think of the past. The only thing that matters is the everlasting present. W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM Often the best way to overcome desire is to satisfy it. W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM It's always difficult to make conversation with a drunk, and there's no denying it, the sober are at... W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM Tao. Some of us look for the Way in opium and some in God, some of us in whiskey and some in love. I... W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM One cannot find peace in work or in pleasure, in the world or in a convent, but only in one's soul. W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM Excess on occasion is exhilarating. It prevents moderation from acquiring the deadening effect of a ... W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM You can do anything in this world if you are prepared to take the consequences. W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM The crown of literature is poetry. W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM It is not true that suffering ennobles the character; happiness does that sometimes, but suffering f... W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM At a dinner party one should eat wisely but not too well, and talk well but not too wisely. W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM Every production of an artist should be the expression of an adventure of his soul. W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM I can imagine no more comfortable frame of mind for the conduct of life than a humorous resignation. W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM They were talking more distantly than if they were strangers who had just met, for if they had been ... W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM How can I be reasonable? To me our love was everything and you were my whole life. It is not very pl... W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM People ask you for criticism, but they only want praise. W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM I would sooner read a time-table or a catalogue than nothing at all. They are much more entertaining... W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM Perfection has one grave defect: it is apt to be dull. W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM Few misfortunes can befall a boy which bring worse consequence than to have a really affectionate mo... W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM Self-control might be as passionate and as active as the surrender to passion... W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM It is an illusion that youth is happy, an illusion of those who have lost it; but the young know the... W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM The only important thing in a book is the meaning that it has for you. W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM The secret to life is meaningless unless you discover it yourself. W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM I have an idea that some men are born out of their due place. Accident has cast them amid certain su... W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM Death is a very dull, dreary affair, and my advice to you is to have nothing whatsoever to do with i... W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM Unfortunately sometimes one can't do what one thinks is right without making someone else unhappy. W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM People do tell a writer things that they don't tell others. I don't know why, unless it is that havi... W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM Perhaps the most important use of money - It saves time. Life is so short, and there's so much to do... W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM There are few things so pleasant as a picnic eaten in perfect comfort. W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM The dead look so terribly dead when they're dead. W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM We who are of mature age seldom suspect how unmercifully and yet with what insight the very young ju... W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM It's a toss-up when you decide to leave the beaten track. Many are called, but few are chosen. W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM It is very difficult to know people and I don't think one can ever really know any but one's own cou... W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM I never spend more than one hour in a gallery. That is as long as one's power of appreciation persis... W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM I like manual labor. Whenever I've got waterlogged with study, I've taken a spell of it and found it... W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM An author spends months writing a book, and maybe puts his heart's blood into it, and then it lies a... W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM All important persons have about them someone in a subordinate position who has their ear. These dep... W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM A man ought to work. That's what he's here for. That's how he contributes to the welfare of the comm... W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM To write simply is as difficult as to be good. W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM It is funny about life: if you refuse to accept anything but the very best you will very often get i... W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM When I was young I had an elderly friend who used often to ask me to stay with him in the country. H... W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM Love is a dirty trick played on us to achieve the continuation of the species. W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM We have long passed the Victorian era, when asterisks were followed after a certain interval by a ba... W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM You can't learn too soon that the most useful thing about a principle is that it can always be sacri... W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM You are not angry with people when you laugh at them. Humor teaches them tolerance. W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM There is hardly anyone whose sexual life, if it were broadcast, would not fill the world at large wi... W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM Sometimes people carry to such perfection the mask they have assumed that in due course they actuall... W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM Tolerance is only another name for indifference. W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM Man has always sacrificed truth to his vanity, comfort and advantage. He lives by make-believe. W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM I do not confer praise or blame: I accept. I am the measure of all things. I am the centre of the wo... W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM I daresay one profits more by the mistakes one makes off one's own bat than by doing the right thing... W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM He had heard people speak contemptuously of money: he wondered if they had ever tried to do without ... W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM Follow your inclinations with due regard to the policeman round the corner. W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM D'you call life a bad job? Never! We've had our ups and downs, we've had our struggles, we've always... W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM Art is merely the refuge which the ingenious have invented, when they were supplied with food and wo... W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM People ask for criticism, but they only want praise. W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM When you have loved as she has loved, you grow old beautifully. W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM We do not write because we want to; we write because we have to. W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM There are three rules for writing the novel. Unfortunately, no one knows what they are. W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM The common idea that success spoils people by making them vain, egotistic, and self-complacent is er... W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM She had a pretty gift for quotation, which is a serviceable substitute for wit. W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM It's a funny thing about life; if you refuse to accept anything but the best, you very often get it. W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM It was such a lovely day I thought it a pity to get up. W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM It is a funny thing about life; if you refuse to accept anything but the best, you very often get it... W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM Dying is a very dull, dreary affair. And my advice to you is to have nothing whatever to do with it. W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM Nothing in the world is permanent, and we're foolish when we ask anything to last, but surely we're ... W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM Old age has its pleasures, which, though different, are not less than the pleasures of youth. W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM The complete life, the perfect pattern, includes old age as well as youth and maturity. The beauty o... W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM Old age is ready to undertake tasks that youth shirked because they would take too long. W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM What makes old age hard to bear is not the failing of one's faculties, mental and physical, but the ... W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM When I was young I was amazed at Plutarch's statement that the elder Cato began at the age of eighty... W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM The common idea that success spoils people by making them vain, egotistic, and self-complacent is er... W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM It is an illusion that youth is happy, an illusion of those who has lost it. W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM Charm and nothing but charm at last grows a little tiresome. It's a relief then to deal with a man w... W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM As if a woman ever loved a man for his virtue. W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM Life isn't long enough for love and art. W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM The most useful thing about a principle is that it can always be sacrificed to expediency. W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM When things are at their worst I find something always happens. W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM When I read a book I seem to read it with my eyes only, but now and then I come across a passage, pe... W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM There's always one who loves and one who lets himself be loved. W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM There was an immeasurable distance between the quick and the dead: they did not seem to belong to th... W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM The rain fell alike upon the just and upon the unjust, and for nothing was there a why and a wherefo... W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM The important thing was to love rather than to be loved. W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM Money is like a sixth sense without which you cannot make a complete use of the other five. W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM Men seek but one thing in life - their pleasure. W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM Life wouldn't be worth living if I worried over the future as well as the present. W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM It's asking a great deal that things should appeal to your reason as well as your sense of the aesth... W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM It is cruel to discover one's mediocrity only when it is too late. W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM It is an illusion that youth is happy, an illusion of those who have lost it; but the young know the... W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM You Europeans know nothing about America. Because we amass large fortunes you think we care for noth... W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM We didn't think much in the air corps of a fellow who wangled a cushy job out of his C.O. by butteri... W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM