More from William Somerset Maugham

  1. I don't think of the past. The only thing that matters is the everlasting present.
  2. The writer is more concerned to know than to judge.
  3. It is not true that suffering ennobles the character; happiness does that sometimes, but suffering, for the most part, makes men petty and …
  4. A woman can forgive a man for the harm he does her...but she can never forgive him for the sacrifices he makes on her account.
  5. She saw shrewdly that the world is quickly bored by the recital of misfortune, and willingly avoids the sight of distress.
  6. Sometimes people carry to such perfection the mask they have assumed that in due course they actually become the person they seem.
  7. Conscience is the guardian in the individual of the rules which the community has evolved for its own preservation.
  8. It's no good trying to keep up old friendships. It's painful for both sides. The fact is, one grows out of people, and the only thing is to…

All William Somerset Maugham quotes