It has amazed me that the most incongruous traits should exist in the same person and, for all that, yield a plausible harmony. W. Somerset Maugham More Quotes by W. Somerset Maugham More Quotes From W. Somerset Maugham No egoism is so insufferable as that of the Christian with regard to his soul. W. Somerset Maugham atheismsoulchristian But what is criticism? Criticism is purely destructive; anyone can destroy, but not everyone can build up. W. Somerset Maugham destructivecriticism Old age is ready to undertake tasks that youth shirked because they would take too long. W. Somerset Maugham elderlytimefunny Yet magic is no more than the art of employing consciously invisible means to produce visible effects. Will, love and imagination are magic powers that everyone possesses; and whoever knows how to develop them to their fullest extent is a magician. Magic has but one dogma, namely, that the seen is the measure of the unseen. W. Somerset Maugham imaginationmeanart There was an immeasurable distance between the quick and the dead: they did not seem to belong to the same species; and it was strange to think that but a little while before they had spoken and moved and eaten and laughed. W. Somerset Maugham distancelittlesthinking It does the heart good to look at you. W. Somerset Maugham doeheartlooks Follow your inclinations with due regard to the policeman round the corner. W. Somerset Maugham human-bondagepolicemendignity There is only one thing about which I am certain, and this is that there is very little about which one can be certain W. Somerset Maugham certaindecisionlittles I am told that today rather more than 60 per cent of the men who go to the universities go on a Government grant. This is a new class that has entered upon the scene ... They are scum. W. Somerset Maugham goes-onclassmen Our wise old church...has discovered that if you will act as if you believed belief will be given to you; if you pray with doubt, but pray with sincerity, your doubt will be dispelled; if you will surrender yourself to the beauty of that liturgy the power of which over the human spirit has been proved by the experience of the ages, peace will descend upon you. W. Somerset Maugham agewisedoubt 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. W. Somerset Maugham wisemenphilosophy ...I couldn't but surmise that the devil, looking at the cruel wars that Christianity has occasioned, the persecutions, the tortures Christian has inflicted on Christian, the unkindness, the hypocracy, the intolerance, must consider the balance sheet with complacency. And when he remembers that it has laid upon mankind the bitter burden of the sense of sin that has darkened the beauty of the starry night and cast a baleful shadow on the passing plesures of a world to be enjoyed, he must chuckle as he murmurs: give the devil his due. W. Somerset Maugham christiannightwar Only mediocre people are at the best all the time. W. Somerset Maugham mediocreswimmingpeople The mathematician who after seeing Phedre asked: 'Qu'est que ca prouve?' was not such a fool as he has been generally made out. No one has ever been able to explain why the Doric temple of Paestum is more beautiful than a glass of cold beer except by bringing in considerations that have nothing to do with beauty. W. Somerset Maugham beautifulbeautyfunny Her tears were partly tears of happiness, for she felt that the strangeness between them was gone. She loved him now with a new love because he had made her suffer. W. Somerset Maugham tearssufferinggone I'm only twenty-five. If I've made a mistake I have time to correct it. W. Somerset Maugham twentiesmademistake The good traveler has the gift of surprise. W. Somerset Maugham travelersurprise With the superciliousness of extreme youth, I put thirty-five as the utmost limit at which a man might fall in love without making a fool of himself. W. Somerset Maugham falling-in-lovemightmen But there are people who take salt with their coffee. They say it gives a tang, a savour, which is peculiar and fascinating. In the same way there are certain places, surrounded by a halo of romance, to which the inevitable disillusionment you experience on seeing them gives a singular spice. You had expected something wholly beautiful and you get an impression which is infinitely more complicated than any that beauty can give you. It is the weakness in the character of a great man which may make him less admirable but certainly more interesting. Nothing had prepared me for Honolulu. W. Somerset Maugham coffeebeautifulcharacter I do not confer praise or blame: I accept. I am the measure of all things. I am the center of the world. W. Somerset Maugham blameacceptanceworld
