Get QuoteDark Inspirational Quotes App

" It is not true that suffering ennobles the character; happiness does that sometimes, but suffering for the most part, makes men petty and vindictive. "

W. Somerset Maugham

Related Quotes:

" The love that lasts longest is the love that is never returned. "

W. Somerset Maugham

" I can imagine no more comfortable frame of mind for the conduct of life than a humorous resignation. "

W. Somerset Maugham

" We learn resignation not by our own suffering, but by the suffering of others. "

W. Somerset Maugham

" The writer is more concerned to know than to judge. "

W. Somerset Maugham

" There are two good things in life - freedom of thought and freedom of action. "

W. Somerset Maugham

" My own belief is that there is hardly anyone whose sexual life, if it were broadcast, would not fill the world at large with surprise and horror. "

W. Somerset Maugham

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

W. Somerset Maugham

" 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. "

W. Somerset Maugham

" It is an illusion that youth is happy, an illusion of those who have lost it. "

W. Somerset Maugham

" What has influenced my life more than any other single thing has been my stammer. Had I not stammered I would probably... have gone to Cambridge as my brothers did, perhaps have become a don and every now and then published a dreary book about French literature. "

W. Somerset Maugham

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

W. Somerset Maugham

" We know our friends by their defects rather than by their merits. "

W. Somerset Maugham

" The writer of prose can only step aside when the poet passes. "

W. Somerset Maugham

" There are three rules for writing a novel. Unfortunately, no one knows what they are. "

W. Somerset Maugham

" 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. "

W. Somerset Maugham

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

W. Somerset Maugham

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

W. Somerset Maugham

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

W. Somerset Maugham

" Tolerance is another word for indifference. "

W. Somerset Maugham

" The great American novel has not only already been written, it has already been rejected. "

W. Somerset Maugham

" It was such a lovely day I thought it a pity to get up. "

W. Somerset Maugham

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

W. Somerset Maugham

" Sentimentality is the only sentiment that rubs you the wrong way. "

W. Somerset Maugham

" It is not wealth one asks for, but just enough to preserve one's dignity, to work unhampered, to be generous, frank and independent. "

W. Somerset Maugham

" It is unsafe to take your reader for more of a fool than he is. "

W. Somerset Maugham

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

W. Somerset Maugham

" Few misfortunes can befall a boy which bring worse consequence than to have a really affectionate mother. "

W. Somerset Maugham

" Perfection has one grave defect: it is apt to be dull. "

W. Somerset Maugham

" Marriage is a very good thing, but I think it's a mistake to make a habit out of it. "

W. Somerset Maugham

" People ask for criticism, but they only want praise. "

W. Somerset Maugham