W. Somerset Maugham

At a dinner party one should eat wisely but not too well, and talk well but not too wisely.

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

In Hollywood, the women are all peaches. It makes one long for an apple occasionally.

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

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 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.

The crown of literature is poetry.

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

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.

Money is like a sixth sense without which you cannot make a complete use of the other five.

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

If a nation values anything more than freedom, it will lose its freedom, and the irony of it is that if it is comfort or money that it values more, it will lose that too.

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

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

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.

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

We are not the same persons this year as last nor are those we love. It is a happy chance if we, changing, continue to love a changed person.

Love is only a dirty trick played on us to achieve continuation of the species.

It's a funny thing about life if you refuse to accept anything but the best, you very often get it.

Imagination grows by exercise, and contrary to common belief, is more powerful in the mature than in the young.

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

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.

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

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 someth…

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