A man marries to have a home, but also because he doesn't want to be bothered with sex and all that sort of thing.
W. Somerset Maugham

An unfortunate thing about this world is that the good habits are much easier to give up than the bad ones.
W. Somerset Maugham

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.
W. Somerset Maugham

Anyone can tell the truth, but only very few of us can make epigrams.
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

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.
W. Somerset Maugham

Considering how foolishly people act and how pleasantly they prattle, perhaps it would be better for the world if they talked more and did less.
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.
W. Somerset Maugham

Death is a very dull, dreary affair, and my advice to you is to have nothing whatsoever to do with it.
W. Somerset Maugham

Every production of an artist should be the expression of an adventure of his soul.
W. Somerset Maugham


Excess on occasion is exhilarating. It prevents moderation from acquiring the deadening effect of a habit.
W. Somerset Maugham

Few misfortunes can befall a boy which bring worse consequence than to have a really affectionate mother.
W. Somerset Maugham

Habits in writing as in life are only useful if they are broken as soon as they cease to be advantageous.
W. Somerset Maugham

Have common sense and stick to the point.
W. Somerset Maugham

I can imagine no more comfortable frame of mind for the conduct of life than a humorous resignation.
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 to do for me.
W. Somerset Maugham

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.
W. Somerset Maugham

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.
W. Somerset Maugham

If a nation values anything more than freedom, it will lose its freedom, and the irony of it is that if it is comfort or money that it values more, it will lose that too.
W. Somerset Maugham

If you don't change your beliefs, your life will be like this forever. Is that good news?
W. Somerset Maugham