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. W. Somerset Maugham More Quotes by W. Somerset Maugham More Quotes From W. Somerset Maugham Sherry, the civilized drink. W. Somerset Maugham sherry drink wine Has it occurred to you that transmigration is at once an explanation and a justification of the evil of the world? If the evils we suffer are the result of sins committed in our past lives, we can bear them with resignation and hope that if in this one we strive toward virtue out future lives will be less afflicted. W. Somerset Maugham suffering evil past The ideas for stories that thronged my brain would not let me rest till I had got rid of them by writing them. W. Somerset Maugham brain writing ideas Men have ascribed to God imperfections that they would deplore in themselves. W. Somerset Maugham imperfection men religion We learn resignation not by our own suffering, but by the suffering of others. W. Somerset Maugham resignation suffering-of-others suffering Common sense and nature will do a lot to make the pilgrimage of life not too difficult. W. Somerset Maugham common-sense nature life The future will one day be the present and will seem as unimportant as the present does now. W. Somerset Maugham one-day seems doe You've been brought up like a gentleman and a Christian, and I should be false to the trust laid upon me by your dead father and mother if I allowed you to expose yourself to such temptation.' Well, I know I'm not a Christian and I'm beginning to doubt whether I'm a gentleman,' said Philip. W. Somerset Maugham christian mother father The ideal has many names, and beauty is but one of them. W. Somerset Maugham ideals names beauty The dead look so terribly dead when they're dead. W. Somerset Maugham looks It is clear that men accept an immediate pain rather than an immediate pleasure, but only because they expect a greater pleasure in the future. Often the pleasure is illusory, but their error in calculation is no refutation of the rule. W. Somerset Maugham pain country children 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 harmony yield character I was a stray acquaintance whom he had never seem before and would never see again, a wandered for a moment through his monotonous life, and some starved impulse left him to lay bare his soul. I have in this way learned more about men in a night than I could if I had known them for 10 years. If you are interested in human nature, it is one of the greatest pleasures of travel. W. Somerset Maugham men night life The trouble with young writers is that they are all in their sixties. W. Somerset Maugham young-writers trouble writing Some people read for instruction, which is praiseworthy, and some for pleasure, which is innocent, but not a few read from habit, and I suppose that this is neither innocent or praiseworthy. Of that lamentable company am I. Conversation after a time bores me, games tire me and my own thoughts, which we are told are the unfailing resource of a sensible man, have a tendency to run dry. Then I fly to my book as the opium-smoker to his pipe. W. Somerset Maugham running men book Sometimes the road was only a lane, with thick hawthorne hedges, and the green elms overhung it on either side so that when you looked up there was only a strip of blue sky between. And as you rode along in the warm, keen air you had a sensation that the world was standing still and life would last forever. Although you were pedaling with such energy you had a delicious feeling of laziness. W. Somerset Maugham air sky blue If truth is a value it is because it is true and not because it is brave to speak it. W. Somerset Maugham speak truth brave In heaven, when the blessed use the telephone they will say what they have to say and not a word besides. W. Somerset Maugham use blessed heaven It is unsafe to take your reader for more of a fool than he is. W. Somerset Maugham unsafe fool reader It must be that to govern a nation you need a specific talent and that this may very well exist without general ability. W. Somerset Maugham government may needs
