You can find snippets of wit and wisdom from Somerset Maugham’s stories.
For those who are ardent fans of Maugham know that his stories clearly reflect his wry perception of human foibles.
Most of his stories mean to scrutinize the human nature.
His forte was exposing the bitter reality of human relationships.
Most of Maughm’s stories and personal observations are infused with wit and wisdom of human life.
Besides churning out novels, short stories, plays, essays and literary criticism, this English writer is also known for his travel books.
The late British playwright, novelist and short story writer, William Somerset Maugham is one of my all time favorite authors.
I have most of his novels and compilations of short stories.
With the advent of Internet, we can get to read most of his literary works free online.
And not forgetting the many free movies based on his stories, available on YouTube.
Maugham was once an accountant and then he studied medicine at St Thomas’s Hospital in London.
In 1897, he qualified as Member of the Royal College of Surgeons and licentiate of the Royal College of Physicians, London.
And that very same year, his first novel ‘Liza of Lambeth‘ was published.
From then on, he went to Seville in Spain and took up writing full-time.
He produced many great writings, which include” ‘The Hero‘, ‘Mrs. Craddock‘, ‘The Merry-Go-Round‘, ‘The Explorer‘, ‘Moon and Sixpence‘, ‘The Trembling Of A Leaf‘, and ‘The Painted Veil‘.
Then he went back to London and immersed in play-writing and novels.
Even he was a predominantly gay, he married to Gwendolyn Maude Syrie Barnardo, who was the wife of American British pharmaceutical entrepreneur, Sir Henry Solomon Wellcome in 1917.
They had a daughter Elizabeth Mary Maugham “Liza”.
In 1928, Maugham move permanently to the French Riviera.
In his later years he wrote many essays, short stories and novels.
Among them are: ‘Cakes and Ale‘, ‘The Narrow Corner‘, ‘Don Fernando‘, ‘The Summing Up‘, ‘Up At The Villa‘, ‘The Razor’s Edge‘, ‘Then And Now‘, ‘Creatures Of Circumstance‘ and ‘Catalina‘.
On 16 December 1965, 91 year-old William Somerset Maugham died in Nice, France.
Wit And Wisdom From Somerset Maugham’s Stories
Below are a list of fully verified authentic Somerset Maugham quotes about life, love, writing, money and God.
“I prefer a loose woman to a selfish one and a wanton to a fool.” – William Somerset Maugham
“I always find it more difficult to say the things I mean than the things I don’t.” – William Somerset Maugham
“I have an idea that the only thing which makes it possible to regard this world we live in without disgust is the beauty which now and then men create out of the chaos. The pictures they paint, the music they compose, the books they write, and the lives they lead. Of all these the richest in beauty is the beautiful life. That is the perfect work of art.” – William Somerset Maugham
“…if it is necessary sometimes to lie to others, it is always despicable to lie to oneself.” – William Somerset Maugham
“…one cannot find peace in work or in pleasure, in the world or in a convent, but only in one’s soul.” – William Somerset Maugham
“People don’t want reasons to do what they’d like to … They want excuses.” – William Somerset Maugham
“Don’t be natural …The stage isn’t the place for that. The stage is make-believe. But seem natural.” – William Somerset Maugham
“Life is short, nature is hostile, and man is ridiculous; but oddly enough most misfortunes have their compensations, and with a certain humour and a good deal of horse-sense one can make a fairly good job of what is after all a matter of very small consequence.” – William Somerset Maugham
“With advancing years, mercifully, you can snap your fingers at the terror and the servitude of love, but age cannot free you from the thraldom of vanity.” – William Somerset Maugham
“Time can assuage the pangs of love, but only death can still the anguish of wounded vanity.” – William Somerset Maugham
“Love is simple and seeks no subterfuge, but vanity cozens you with a hundred disguises. It is part and parcel of every virtue: it is mainspring of courage and the strength of ambition; it gives constancy to the lover and endurance to the stoic; it adds fuel to the fire of the artist’s desire for fame and is at once the support and the compensation of the honest man’s integrity; it leers even cynically in the humility of the saint.” – William Somerset Maugham
“Sincerity cannot protect you from its (vanity) snare nor humour from its mockery.” – William Somerset Maugham
“Men seek but one thing in life — their pleasure.” – William Somerset Maugham
“Money is like a sixth sense, without which you cannot make a complete use of the other five. Without an adequate income half the possibilities of life are shut off.” – William Somerset Maugham
“…people say that poverty is the best spur to the artist. They have never felt the iron of it in their flesh. They do not know how mean it makes you. It exposes you to endless humiliation, it cuts your wings, it eats into your soul like cancer.” – William Somerset Maugham
“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…” – William Somerset Maugham
“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 practised at spare moments; it is a whole-time job.” – William Somerset Maugham
“…when you are young you take the kindness people show you as your right…” – William Somerset Maugham
“You know, there are two good things in life, freedom of thought and freedom of action.” – William Somerset Maugham
“It is an illusion that youth is happy, an illusion of those who have lost it; but the young know they are wretched, for they are full of the truthless ideals which have been instilled into them, and each time they come in contact with the real they are bruised and wounded.” – William Somerset Maugham
“Life wouldn’t be worth living if I worried over the future as well as the present. When things are at their worst I find something always happens.” – William Somerset Maugham
“There’s always one who loves and one who lets himself be loved.” – William Somerset Maugham
“It might be that to surrender to happiness was to accept defeat, but it was a defeat better than many victories.” – William Somerset Maugham
“He had heard people speak contemptuously of money: he wondered if they had tried to do without it.” – William Somerset Maugham
“People ask you for criticism, but they only want praise.” – William Somerset Maugham
“It is cruel to discover one’s mediocrity only when it is too late.” – William Somerset Maugham
“…impropriety is the soul of wit…” – William Somerset Maugham
“I don’t think of the past. The only thing that matters is the everlasting present.” – William Somerset Maugham
“…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.” – William Somerset Maugham
“We must go through life so inconspicuously that Fate does not notice us.” – William Somerset Maugham
“We are here none knows why, and we go none knows whither.” – William Somerset Maugham
“We must see the beauty of quietness.” – William Somerset Maugham
“The writer is more concerned to know than to judge.” – William Somerset Maugham
“A woman can forgive a man for the harm he does her…but she can never forgive him for the sacrifices he makes on her account.” – William Somerset Maugham
“…self-doubt, which is the artist’s bitterest enemy…” – William Somerset Maugham
“…men are always the same. Fear makes them cruel…” – William Somerset Maugham
“A god that can be understood is no God” – William Somerset Maugham
“…things don’t get any easier by putting them off.” – William Somerset Maugham
“Life is full of improbabilities which fiction does not admit of.” – William Somerset Maugham
“When you know a man’s surroundings you already know something about the man.” – William Somerset Maugham
“The great compensation of old age, …is its freedom of spirit…” – William Somerset Maugham
“Old age liberates you from envy, hatred and malice.” – William Somerset Maugham
“If God exists and he concerns himself with the affairs of humanity, then surely he will take a lenient view, as lenient a view as a sensible man takes, of the weakness of human beings.” – William Somerset Maugham
“The novelist is a natural propagandist. He can’t help it however hard he tries. He loads his dice.” – William Somerset Maugham
“One isn’t always as careful of what one says as one should be.” – William Somerset Maugham
“Every man is his own best critic.” – William Somerset Maugham
“To acquire the habit of reading is to construct for yourself a refuge from almost all the miseries of life.” – William Somerset Maugham
“To write simply is as difficult as to be good.” – William 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.” – William Somerset Maugham
“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.” – William Somerset Maugham
“The Riviera isn’t only a sunny place for shady people.” – William Somerset Maugham
“Do you know that conversation is one of the greatest pleasures in life? But it wants leisure.” – William Somerset Maugham
“You can do anything in this world if you’re prepared to take the consequences…” – William Somerset Maugham
“People are always a little disconcerted when you don’t recognize them, they are so important to themselves, it is a shock to discover of what small importance they are to others.” – William Somerset Maugham
Here is a list of websites where you can read or download Somerset Maugham free ebooks:
EbooksRead
The Complete Short Stories Of Somerset Maugham, Vol. I
The Complete Short Stories Of Somerset Maugham, Vol. II
The Complete Short Stories Of Somerset Maugham, Vol. III