187 quotes
I made up my mind long ago that life was too short to do anything for myself that I could pay others to do for me.
A Writer's Notebook (1946)
When you have loved as she has loved, you grow old beautifully.
He had a bitter pain in his heart, for he knew that she was still a stranger to him and his hungry love was destined ever to remain unsatisfied.
I've brought you a tie from Charvet, Daddy." "Is it loud?" "Very." "Good." They were all so pleased with one another that they burst out laughing.
Christmas holiday (1953)
I had not yet learnt how contradictory is human nature; I did not know how much pose there is in the sincere, how much baseness in the noble, or how much goodness in the reprobate.
The Moon and Sixpence (1919)
Dying is a very dull, dreary affair. And my advice to you is to have nothing whatever to do with it.
Conversations with Willie (1978)
He knew that women appreciated neither irony nor sarcasm, but simple jokes and funny stories. He was amply provided with both.
Then and Now : A Novel (1946)
The great critic ... must be a philosopher, for from philosophy he will learn serenity, impartiality, and the transitoriness of human things.
The Summing Up (1938)
Art... is merely the refuge which the ingenious have invented, when they were supplied with food and women, to escape the tediousness of life.
Of Human Bondage (1915)
Things were easier for the old novelists who saw people all of a piece. Speaking generally, their heroes were good through and through, their villains wholly bad.
A Writer's Notebook (1946)
They are like a face full of character that intrigues and excites you, but that on closer acquaintance you discover is merely the mask of a vulgar soul. Such is Tourane.
The Gentleman in the Parlour (1930)
I hate people who play bridge as though they were at a funeral and knew their feet were getting wet.
Said in 1921. Quoted in The Guinness Dictionary of Sports Quotations (1990)
I do not confer praise or blame: I accept. I am the measure of all things. I am the centre of the world.
Of Human Bondage (1915)
It was not till quite late in life that I discovered how easy it is to say: "I don't know."
A Writer's Notebook (1946)
She had a pretty gift for quotation, which is a serviceable substitute for wit...
It was such a lovely day I thought it was a pity to get up.
Our Betters (1923)
I would sooner read a time-table or a catalogue than nothing at all. ... They are much more entertaining than half the novels that are written.
The Summing Up (1938)
My own belief is that there is hardly anyone whose sexual life, if it were broadcast, would not fill the world at large with surprise and horror.
Somerset Maugham (1980)
The Chinese are the aristocracy of the East.
The Gentleman in the Parlour (1930)
You know that the Tasmanians, who never committed adultery, are now extinct.
The Bread-Winner (1930)