W. Somerset Maugham
Full Name: William Somerset Maugham
Birthdate: January 25, 1874
Birthplace: British Embassy, Paris, France
Date of Death: December 16, 1965
Occupation: Novelist, Playwright, and Short-Story Writer
Profile: Best known for
Of Human Bondage.
Website: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Somerset_Maugham
Number of Quotes: 12
At a dinner party one should eat wisely but not too well, and talk well but not too wisely.
Beauty is an ecstasy; it is as simple as hunger. There is really nothing to be
said about it. It is like the perfume of a rose: you can smell it and that is all.
Few misfortunes can befall a boy which bring worse consequences than to have a really affectionate mother.
From the earliest times the old have rubbed it into the young that they are wiser than they, and before the
young had discovered what nonsense this was they were old too, and it profited them to carry on the imposture.
I recognize that I am made up of several persons and that the person that at the moment has the
upper hand will inevitably give place to another. But which is the real one? All of them or none?
Love is only a dirty trick played on us to achieve continuation of the species.
People ask you for criticism but they only want praise.
People often feed the hungry so that nothing may disturb their own enjoyment of a good meal.
Sometimes people carry to such perfection the mask they have assumed that in due course they actually become the person they seem.
The common idea that success spoils people by making them vain, egotistic and self-complacent is erroneous; on
the contrary it makes them, for the most part, humble, tolerant and kind. Failure makes people bitter and cruel.
What makes old age hard to bear is not the failing of one's faculties, mental and physical, but the burden of one's memories.
When you choose your friends, don't be short-changed by choosing personality over character.
Last on Earth
