adultery

art for art's sake

audience

beauty

certainty

changing one's mind

character

civilization

conscience

criticism

darkness

dinner

dinner party

dullness

dying

encounter

English cuisine

ephemeral

evolution

excess

experience

false modesty

fame

fashion

genius

great man

growth

habit

heart

Henry James

husband

hypocrisy

illusion

impropriety

life

love

mediocrity

mistake

money

motherhood

night

normal

novel

novel writing

old age

perfection

philosopher

pleasure

pretension

principle

religion

self

self-complacency

self-control

sentimentality

species

stranger

style

subjunctive mood

suffering

tolerance

tradition

W.B. Yeats

wealth

woman

work

world

youth

occupation / innovator as

screenwriter

playwright

prosaist

physician writer

novelist

nationality

British

literary critic

innovator in the field of

playwrighting

's value lies not in beauty, but in right action, teaching man humility, tolerance, wisdom and magnanimity.

Art, if it is to be reckoned as one of the great values of life, must teach man humility, tolerance, wisdom and magnanimity. The value of art is not beauty, but right action. (W. Somerset Maugham)

is no more sensical than gin for gin's sake.

Art for art's sake makes no more sense than gin for gin's sake. (W. Somerset Maugham)

is not the least important actor in the play and if will not do its allotted share the play falls to pieces.

The audience is not the least important actor in the play and if will not do its allotted share the play falls to pieces. (W. Somerset Maugham)

is possible only in this: that there is very little about which one can be certain.

There is only one thing about which I am certain, and that is that there is very little about which one can be certain.

is best proved in one's ability to bear failure with courage.

the best proof of character that anyone can give.

is friendly and familiar in the country... in the city it is it is unnatural, hostile and menacing, like a monstrous vulture that hovers, biding its time.

In the country the darkness of night is friendly and familiar, but in a city, with its blaze of lights, it is unnatural, hostile and menacing. It is like a monstrous vulture that hovers, biding its time. W. Somerset Maugham

is like having a string of pearls which, after a while, is thought about by the owner only when wondering if they're real or cultured.

Fame .. . it's like having a string of pearls given you. It's nice, but after a while, if you think of it at all, it's only to wonder if they're real or cultured

is the most difficult and nerve-racking vice that any man can pursue... it needs an unceasing vigilance and a rare detachment of spirit. It cannot, like adultery or gluttony, be practiced at spare moments... it is a whole-time job.

Hypocrisy is the most difficult and nerve-racking vice that any man can pursue... it needs an unceasing vigilance and a rare detachment of spirit. It cannot, like adultery or gluttony, be practiced at spare moments... it is a whole-time job.

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

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

is what happens to men and women who don't know each other.

Love is what happens to men and women who don't know each other.

is more profitable when one commits it off one's own bat than by doing the right thing on somebody else's advice.

I daresay one profits more by the mistakes one makes off one's own bat than by doing the right thing on somebody else's advice. (W. Somerset Maugham)

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

*The secret of caregiving success took me years to discover. Quite simply, we cannot do it alone. No one can. We must create a support circle'a circle of care.

is friendly and familiar out in the country, but in a city, with its blaze of lights, it is unnatural, hostile and menacing like a monstrous vulture that hovers, biding its time.

 can be summed up in three rules. Unfortunately, no one knows what they are.

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

is like a mountaineer who has with difficulty climbed a mountain for the sake of the surprise, and arriving at the top finds only fog... whereupon he wanders down again.

The philosopher is like a mountaineer who has with difficulty climbed a mountain for the sake of the surprise, and arriving at the top finds only fog... whereupon he wanders down again

is not wise on account of its numerous believers... if forty million people say a foolish thing it does not become a wise one.

If forty million people say a foolish thing it does not become a wise one. W. Somerset Maugham (1901)

is not just oneself, but also the region in which they are born, the city apartment or farm in which they learnt to walk, the games they played as children, the old wives tales they overheard, the food they ate, the schools they attended, the sports they followed, the poets they read, and the God they believed in.

For men and women are not only themselves... they are also the region in which they are born, the city apartment or farm in which they learnt to walk, the games they played as children, the old wives tales they overheard, the food they ate, the schools they attended, the sports they followed, the poets they read, and the God they believed in. It is all these things that have made them what they are, and these are the things that you can't come to know by hearsay. . . W. Somerset Maugham

*The envious die not once, but as oft as the envied win applause.

is like a child born in the night who sees the sun rise and thinks that yesterday never existed.

Each youth is like a child born in the night who sees the sun rise and thinks that yesterday never existed

W. Somerset MaughamThinkers

W. Somerset Maugham