Quote #74

: habits in writing as in life are only useful if they are broken as soon as they cease to be advantageous.

More from William Somerset Maugham

  1. Imagination grows by exercise, and contrary to common belief, is more powerful in the mature than in the young.
  2. The common idea that success spoils people by making them vain, egotistic and self-complacent is erroneous; on the contrary it makes them, …
  3. 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.
  4. I'll give you my opinion of the human race in a nutshell... their heart's in the right place, but their head is a thoroughly inefficient or…
  5. I do not believe they are right who say that the defects of famous men should be ignored. I think it is better that we should know them. Th…
  6. I have been forced to conclude from this that we know our friends by their defects rather than by their merits.
  7. You are not angry with people when you laugh at them. Humour teaches tolerance, and the humorist, with a smile and perhaps a sigh, is more …
  8. It is salutary to train oneself to be no more affected by censure than by praise:

All William Somerset Maugham quotes