William Somerset Maugham citations (158 citations, Page 4)

William Somerset Maugham: 158 citations0 J'aime

William Somerset Maugham: Citations en anglais

“It's no use crying over spilt milk, because all of the forces of the universe were bent on spilling it.”

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W. Somerset Maugham livre Of Human Bondage

Source: Of Human Bondage (1915), Ch. 68

“It's asking a great deal that things should appeal to your reason as well as your sense of the aesthetic.”

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W. Somerset Maugham livre Of Human Bondage

Source: Of Human Bondage (1915), Ch. 88

“[…] the Eternal turned his attention to the three shades who stood humbly and yet hopefully before him. The quick, with so short a time to live, when they talk of themselves, talk too much; but the dead, with eternity before them, are so verbose that only angels could listen to them with civility.”

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W. Somerset Maugham

"The judgement seat", p. 314
Short Stories, Collected short stories 1

“Like all weak men he laid an exaggerated stress on not changing one's mind.”

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W. Somerset Maugham livre Of Human Bondage

Source: Of Human Bondage (1915), Ch. 39

“I made up my mind long ago that life was too short to do anything for myself that I could pay others to do for me.”

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W. Somerset Maugham

"1941", p. 336
A Writer's Notebook (1946)

“A soul is a troublesome possession, and when man developed it he lost the Garden of Eden.”

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W. Somerset Maugham

Red http://books.google.com/books?id=6ZZgZw5yX8QC&q=&quot;a+soul+is+a+troublesome+possession+and+when+man+developed+it+he+lost+the+Garden+of+Eden&quot;&pg=PA413#v=onepage (1921)

“Few misfortunes can befall a boy which bring worse consequences than to have a really affectionate mother.”

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W. Somerset Maugham

"1896", p. 28
A Writer's Notebook (1946)

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

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W. Somerset Maugham livre The Summing Up

Source: The Summing Up (1938), p. 290

“The writer is more concerned to know than to judge.”

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W. Somerset Maugham livre The Moon and Sixpence

Source: The Moon and Sixpence (1919), Ch. 41, p. 140

“Things were easier for the old novelists who saw people all of a piece. Speaking generally, their heroes were good through and through, their villains wholly bad.”

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W. Somerset Maugham

"1922", p. 196
A Writer's Notebook (1946)

“Money is like a sixth sense - and you can't make use of the other five without it.”

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W. Somerset Maugham

NY Times Magazine (October 18, 1958)

“There's always one who loves and one who lets himself be loved.”

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W. Somerset Maugham livre Of Human Bondage

Source: Of Human Bondage (1915), Ch. 71

“To eat well in England, you should have a breakfast three times a day.”

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W. Somerset Maugham

Quoted in Somerset Maugham (1980) by Ted Morgan

“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 organ.”

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W. Somerset Maugham livre The Summing Up

Source: The Summing Up (1938), p. 206

“Sentimentality is only sentiment that rubs you up the wrong way.”

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W. Somerset Maugham

"1941"
A Writer's Notebook (1946)

“I don't think of the past. The only thing that matters is the everlasting present.”

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W. Somerset Maugham livre The Moon and Sixpence

Source: The Moon and Sixpence (1919), Ch. 21, p. 79

“After all, 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.”

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W. Somerset Maugham

Arnold, in The Circle: A Comedy in Three Acts (1921), p. 58-59
Plays

“…when you are young you take the kindness people show you as your right…”

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W. Somerset Maugham

Source: Cakes and Ale: Or, The Skeleton in the Cupboard (1930), p. 166

“It might be that to surrender to happiness was to accept defeat, but it was a defeat better than many victories.”

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W. Somerset Maugham livre Of Human Bondage

Source: Of Human Bondage (1915), Ch. 122

“You bloody fool, you've killed the wrong man.”

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W. Somerset Maugham

The Hairless Mexican (1927)
Short Stories

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

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W. Somerset Maugham livre Ten Novels and Their Authors

Ten Novels and Their Authors (1954)

“He found himself now in the agreeable situation of being able to do what was best for others and at the same time what was convenient to himself.”

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W. Somerset Maugham livre The Razor's Edge

p, 125
The Razor's Edge (1943)

“He had doubts about the utility of examination on subjects which had been crammed for the occasion. He wanted common sense.”

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W. Somerset Maugham livre Of Human Bondage

Source: Of Human Bondage (1915), Ch. 10

“He was always seeking for a meaning in life, and here it seemed to him that a meaning was offered; but it was obscure and vague. He was profoundly troubled. He saw what looked like the truth as by flashes of lightning on a dark, stormy night you might see a mountain range. He seemed to see that a man need not leave his life to chance, but that his will was powerful; he seemed to see that self-control might be as passionate and as active as the surrender to passion; he seemed to see that the inward life might be as manifold, as varied, as rich with experience, as the life of one who conquered realms and explored unknown lands.”

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W. Somerset Maugham livre Of Human Bondage

Source: Of Human Bondage (1915), Ch. 88

“Perfection is a trifle dull. It is not the least of life's ironies that this, which we all aim at, is better not quite achieved.”

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W. Somerset Maugham livre The Summing Up

Source: The Summing Up (1938), p. 297

“Passion is destructive; if it does not destroy, it dies.”

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W. Somerset Maugham livre The Razor's Edge

The Razor's Edge (1943)

“Men seek but one thing in life — their pleasure.”

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W. Somerset Maugham livre Of Human Bondage

Source: Of Human Bondage (1915), Ch. 45

“One of the falsest of proverbs is that you must lie on the bed that you have made. The experience of life shows that people are constantly doing things which must lead to disaster, and yet by some chance manage to evade the result of their folly.”

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W. Somerset Maugham livre The Moon and Sixpence

Source: The Moon and Sixpence (1919), Ch. 33, p. 119

“Both these men are in love with Natasha, Count Rostov's younger daughter, and in her Tolstoy has created the most delightful girl in fiction. Nothing is so difficult as to portray a young girl who is at once charming and interesting. Generally the young girls of fiction are colorless (Amelia in Vanity Fair), priggish (Fanny in Mansfield Park), too clever by half (Constantia Durham in The Egoist), or little geese (Dora in David Copperfield), silly flirts or innocent beyound belief. It is understandable that they should be an awkward subject for the novelist to deal with, for at that tender age the personality is undeveloped. Similarly a painter can only make a face interesting when the vicissitudes of life, thought, love and suffering have given it character. In the portrait of a girl the best he can do is to represent the charm and beauty of youth. But Natasha is entirely natural. She is sweet, sensitive, and sympathetic, willful, childish, womanly already, idealistic, quick-tempered, warm-hearted, headstrong, capricious and in everything enchanting. Tolstoy created many women and they are wonderfully true to life, but never another who wins the affection of the reader as does Natasha.”

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W. Somerset Maugham

Leo Tolstoy and War and Peace
Great Novelists and Their Novels

“Bob Forestier had pretended for so many years to be a gentleman that in the end, forgetting that it was all a fake, he had found himself driven to act as in that stupid, conventional brain of his he thought a gentleman must act. No longer knowing the difference between sham and real, he had sacrificed his life to a spurious heroism.”

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W. Somerset Maugham

"The lion's skin", p. 283
Short Stories, Collected short stories 1

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