Quotes by William Somerset Maugham

“To believe is very dull. To doubt is intensely engrossing.”

“Tradition is a guide and not a jailer”

“Traditions are the guideposts driven deep in our subconscious minds. The most powerful ones are those we cant even describe, arent even aware of.”

“It is an illusion that youth is happy, an illusion of those who have lost it.”

“Tradition simply means that we need to end what began well and continue what is worth continuing”

“Imagination grows by exercise, and contrary to common belief, is more powerful in the mature than in the young.”

“There is hardly anyone whose sexual life, if it were broadcast, would not fill the world at large with surprise and horror.”

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

“Theres always one who loves and one who lets himself be loved.”

“American women expect to find in their husbands a perfection that English women only hope to find in their butlers”

“Love is what happens to a man and woman who dont know each other”

“You can do anything in this world if you are prepared to take the consequences”

“Love is only the dirty trick played on us to achieve continuation of the species.”

“A man marries to have a home, but also because he doesnt want to be bothered with sex and all that sort of thing.”

“Imagination is not the talent of some men, but is the health of every man”

“I am imagination. I can see what the eyes cannot see. I can hear what the ears cannot hear. I can feel what the heart cannot feel.”

“It is an illusion that youth is happy, an illusion of those who have lost it; but the young know they are wretched, for they are full of the truthless ideals which have been instilled into them, and each time they come in contact with the real they are bruised and wounded.”

“The great tragedy of life is not that men perish, but that they cease to love.”

“Its no good crying over spilt milk, because all the forces of the universe were bent on spilling it”