People are always a little disconcerted when you don't recognize them, they are so important to themselves, it is a shock to discover of what small importance they are to others. [The human element] W. Somerset Maugham More Quotes by W. Somerset Maugham More Quotes From W. Somerset Maugham When a woman loves you she's not satisfied until she possesses your soul. Because she's weak, she has a rage for domination, and nothing less will satisfy her. W. Somerset Maugham women soul love-you Hypocrisy is the most difficult and nerve-racking vice that any man can pursue; it needs an unceasing vigilance and a rare detachment of spirit. It cannot, like adultery or gluttony, be practiced at spare moments; it is a whole-time job. W. Somerset Maugham hypocrite fear jobs I don't understand anything. Life is so strange. I feel like some one who's lived all his life by a duck-pond and suddenly is shown the sea. It makes me a little breathless, and yet it fills me with elation. I don't want to die, I want to live. I'm beginning to feel a new courage. I feel like one of those old sailors who set sail for undiscovered seas and I think my soul hankers for the unknown. W. Somerset Maugham ducks sea thinking Impropriety is the soul of wit. W. Somerset Maugham advice inspirational life Habits in writing as in life are only useful if they are broken as soon as they cease to be advantageous. W. Somerset Maugham habit broken writing For men and women are not only themselves; they are also the region in which they are born, the city apartment or farm in which they learnt to walk, the games they played as children, the old wives tales they overheard, the food they ate, the schools they attended, the sports they followed, the poets they read, and the God they believed in. It is all these things that have made them what they are, and these are the things that you can't come to know by hearsay. W. Somerset Maugham sports children school You tend to close your eyes to truth, beauty and goodness because they give no scope to your sense of the ridiculous. W. Somerset Maugham eye happiness giving Self-control might be as passionate and as active as the surrender to passion. W. Somerset Maugham passion self might Its a toss-up when you decide to leave the beaten track. Many are called, few are chosen. W. Somerset Maugham toss chosen track It is not for nothing that artists have called their works the children of their brains and likened the pains of production to the pains of childbirth. W. Somerset Maugham pain artist children The artist produces for the liberation of his soul. It is his nature to create as it is the nature of water to run down the hill. W. Somerset Maugham running water art A Unitarian very earnestly disbelieves what everyone else believes. W. Somerset Maugham unitarian believe religion The audience is not the least important actor in the play and if it will not do its allotted share the play falls to pieces. W. Somerset Maugham important play fall Perfect is determined in shortened measures of time, not over long periods of time or lifetimes. It would be unnatural. W. Somerset Maugham would-be perfect long If forty million people say a foolish thing it does not become a wise one. W. Somerset Maugham atheism wise people Anyone can tell the truth, but only very few of us can make epigrams. W. Somerset Maugham telling-the-truth truth lying Remember that it is nothing to do your duty, that is demanded of you and is no more meritorious than to wash your hands when they are dirty; the only thing that counts is the love of duty; when love and duty are one, then grace is in you and you will enjoy a happiness which passes all understanding. W. Somerset Maugham grace hands dirty First, cut out all the wisdom, then cut out all the adjectives. W. Somerset Maugham adjectives cutting firsts An art is only great and significant if it is one that all may enjoy. The art of a clique is but a plaything. W. Somerset Maugham clique may art Love is only a dirty trick played on us to achieve continuation of the species. W. Somerset Maugham depressing sarcastic love
