W. Somerset Maugham Quotes on Life (16 Quotes)

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.

On the earth, satellite of a star speeding through space, living things had arisen under the influence of conditions which were part of the planet's history; and as there had been a beginning of life upon it, so, under the influence of other conditions, there would be an end: man, no more significant than other forms of life, had come not as the climax of creation but as a physical reaction to the environment.

The secret to life is meaningless unless you discover it yourself.

I wish I could make you see how much fuller the life I offer you is than anything you have a conception of. I wish I could make you see how exciting the life of the spirit is and how rich in experience. It's illimitable. It's such a happy life. There's only one thing like it, when you're up in a plane by yourself, high, high, and only infinity surrounds you. You're intoxicated by the boundless space.

And then he felt the misery of his life.

Art is merely the refuge which the ingenious have invented, when they were supplied with food and women, to escape the tediousness of life.

But Philip was impatient with himself; he called to mind his idea of the pattern of life: the unhappiness he had suffered was no more than part of a decoration which was elaborate and beautiful; he told himself strenuously that he must accept with gaiety everything, dreariness and excitement, pleasure and pain, because it added to the richness of the design.

His death had been as futile as his life. He died ingloriously, of a stupid disease, failing once more, even at the end, to accomplish anything.

It was one of the queer things of life that you saw a person every day for months and were so intimate with him that you could not imagine existence without him; then separation came, and everything went on in the same way, and the companion who had seemed essential proved unnecessary.

I can imagine no more comfortable frame of mind for the conduct of life than a humorous resignation.

It wasn't until late in life that I discovered how easy it is to say "I don't know."

It's a funny thing about life; if you refuse to accept anything but the best, you very often get it.

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.

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.

There are two good things in life - freedom of thought and freedom of action.

Habits in writing as in life are only useful if they are broken as soon as they cease to be advantageous.