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.

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

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

Every production of an artist should be the expression of an adventure of his soul.

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

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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