W. Somerset Maugham Quotes - Page 4

Aloof on her mountain top she considered the innumerable activities of men. She had a wonderful sense of freedom from all earthly ties, and it was such an ecstasy that nothing in comparison with it had any value. She felt like a spirit in heaven.

If you don't change your beliefs, your life will be like this forever. Is that good news?

We Americans... like change. It is at once our weakness and our strength.

When you choose your friends, don't be short-changed by choosing personality over character.

Melville, by his own account, spent four months in the valley. He was well treated. He made friends with a girl called Fayaway, swam and boated with her, and except for his fear of being eaten was happy enough.

A mother only does her children harm if she makes them the only concern of her life.

I now, weak, old, diseased, poor, dying, hold still my soul in my hands, and I regret nothing.

I only wanted to suggest to you that self-sacrifice is a passion so overwhelming that beside it even lust and hunger are trifling.

She gathered herself together. No one could describe the scorn of her expression or the contemptuous hatred she put into her answer.
"You men! You filthy dirty pigs! You're all the same, all of you. Pigs! Pigs!

The highest activities of consciousness have their origins in physical occurrences of the brain just as the loveliest melodies are not too sublime to be expressed by notes.