Quotes by W. Somerset Maugham

At a dinner party one should eat wisely but not too well, and talk well but not too wisely.

It is not wealth one asks for, but just enough to preserve one’s dignity, to work unhampered, to be generous, frank and independent.

In Hollywood, the women are all peaches. It makes one long for an apple occasionally.

Anyone can tell the truth, but only very few of us can make epigrams.

You know what the critics are. If you tell the truth they only say you’re cynical and it does an author no good to get a reputation for cynicism.

The common idea that success spoils people by making them vain, egotistic and self-complacent is erroneous on the contrary it makes them, for the most part, humble, tolerant and kind.

The crown of literature is poetry.

The artist produces for the liberation of his soul. It is his nature to create as it is the nature of water to run down the hill.

Men have an extraordinarily erroneous opinion of their position in nature and the error is ineradicable.

Money is like a sixth sense without which you cannot make a complete use of the other five.