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Quotes from The Moon and Sixpence — W. Somerset Maugham

1874–1965 England

← All quotes by W. Somerset Maugham

27 quotes

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)

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)

We must go through life so inconspicuously that Fate does not notice us.

The Moon and Sixpence (1919)

It is not true that suffering ennobles the character; happiness does that sometimes, but suffering, for the most part, makes men petty and vindictive.

The Moon and Sixpence (1919)

Sometimes people carry to such perfection the mask they have assumed that in due course they actually become the person they seem.

The Moon and Sixpence (1919)

Men are always the same. Fear makes them cruel.

The Moon and Sixpence (1919)

Conscience is the guardian in the individual of the rules which the community has evolved for its own preservation.

The Moon and Sixpence (1919)

Perhaps some deep-rooted atavism urges the wanderer back to lands which his ancestors left in the dim beginnings of history.

The Moon and Sixpence (1919)

No affectation of peculiarity can conceal a commonplace mind.

The Moon and Sixpence (1919)

The writer is more concerned to know than to judge.

The Moon and Sixpence (1919)

Self-doubt, which is the artist's bitterest enemy.

The Moon and Sixpence (1919)

But who can fathom the subtleties of the human heart? Certainly not those who expect from it only decorous sentiments and normal emotions.

The Moon and Sixpence (1919)

Tahiti is very far away, and I knew that I should never see it again. A chapter of my life was closed, and I felt a little nearer to inevitable death.

The Moon and Sixpence (1919)

Whatever anguish she suffered she concealed. She saw shrewdly that the world is quickly bored by the recital of misfortune, and willingly avoids the sight of distress.

The Moon and Sixpence (1919)

I am a little shy of any assumption of moral indignation. There is always in it an element of self-satisfaction which makes it awkward to anyone who has a sense of humour.

The Moon and Sixpence (1919)

Impropriety is the soul of wit.

The Moon and Sixpence (1919)

I don't think of the past. The only thing that matters is the everlasting present.

The Moon and Sixpence (1919)

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.

The Moon and Sixpence (1919)

He made one laugh sometimes by speaking the truth, but this is a form of humour which gains its force only by its unusualness; it would cease to amuse if it were commonly practised.

The Moon and Sixpence (1919)

Attribution

Quotes and notes from Wikiquote: W. Somerset Maugham (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0.