187 quotes
You know, there are two good things in life, freedom of thought and freedom of action.
Of Human Bondage (1915)
You can do anything in this world if you are prepared to take the consequences.
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.
Old age has its pleasures, which, though different, are not less than the pleasures of youth.
The Summing Up (1938)
But when all was said the important thing was to love rather than to be loved.
Of Human Bondage (1915)
I held my breath, for to me there is nothing more awe-inspiring than when a man discovers to you the nakedness of his soul.
I have always been convinced that if a woman once made up her mind to marry a man nothing but instant flight could save him.
I did not then know the besetting sin of woman, the passion to discuss her private affairs with anyone who is willing to listen.
The Moon and Sixpence (1919)
Anyone can tell the truth, but only very few of us can make epigrams.
A Writer's Notebook (1946)
There's always one who loves and one who lets himself be loved.
Of Human Bondage (1915)
The love that lasts longest is the love that is never returned.
A Writer's Notebook (1946)
What mean and cruel things men can do for the love of God.
A Writer's Notebook (1946)
People ask you for criticism, but they only want praise.
Of Human Bondage (1915)
The modern clergyman has acquired in his study of the science which I believe is called exegesis an astonishing facility for explaining things away.
The Moon and Sixpence (1919)
Life isn't long enough for love and art.
The Moon and Sixpence (1919)
Now the world in general doesn't know what to make of originality; it is startled out of its comfortable habits of thought, and its first reaction is one of anger.
Great Novelists and Their Novels (1948)
Men have an extraordinarily erroneous opinion of their position in nature; and the error is ineradicable.
A Writer's Notebook (1946)
Every production of an artist should be the expression of an adventure of his soul.
The Summing Up (1938)
Like all weak men he laid an exaggerated stress on not changing one's mind.
Of Human Bondage (1915)
We must go through life so inconspicuously that Fate does not notice us.
The Moon and Sixpence (1919)