Inspiring Quotes by W. Somerset Maugham - Page 2

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"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"

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

"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"

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

"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"

"You are not angry with people when you laugh at them. Humor teaches tolerance"

"The world in general doesn't know what to make of originality; it is startled out of its comfortable habits of thought, and its first reaction is one of anger"

"The trouble with young writers is that they are all in their sixties"

"The most useful thing about a principle is that it can always be sacrificed to expediency"

"Old age is ready to undertake tasks that youth shirked because they would take too long"

"Old age has its pleasures, which, though different, are not less than the pleasures of youth"

"Men have an extraordinarily erroneous opinion of their position in nature; and the error is ineradicable"

"Money is the string with which a sardonic destiny directs the motions of its puppets"

"When you are young you take the kindness people show you as your right"

"There is no explanation for evil. It must be looked upon as a necessary part of the order of the universe. To ignore it is childish, to bewail it senseless"

"You know what the critics are. If you tell the truth they only say you're cynical and it does an author no good to get a reputation for cynicism"

"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"

"It seems that the creative faculty and the critical faculty cannot exist together in their highest perfection"

"Let us develop the resources of our land, call forth its powers, build up its institutions, promote all its great interests, and see whether we also, in our day and generation, may not perform something worthy to be remembered"

"It is well known that Beauty does not look with a good grace on the timid advances of Humour"

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