Famous quotations by W. Somerset Maugham

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

 *‌ Beauty is an ecstasy; it is as simple as hunger. There is really nothing to be

 said about it. It is like the perfume of a rose: you can smell it and that is all.

  * 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.

  * It's no good trying to keep up old friendships. It's painful for both sides.

The fact is, one grows out of people, and the only thing is to face it.

  * We know our friends by their defects rather than by their merits.

 * Imagination grows by exercise and contrary to common belief is

more powerful in the mature than in the young.

 * We are not the same persons this year as last; nor are those we love.

It is a happy chance if we, changing, continue to love a changed person.

 * In the country the darkness of night is friendly and familiar, but in a city,

 with its blaze of lights, it is unnatural, hostile and menacing.

It is like a monstrous vulture that hovers, biding its time.

 * 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. Failure makes people cruel and bitter.

 * Perfection is a trifle dull. It is not the least of life's ironies that this,

which we all aim at, is better not quite achieved.

 * A man marries to have a home, but also because he doesn't want to be bothered

with sex and all that sort of thing.

 * An unfortunate thing about this world is that the good habits are much easier

 to give up than the bad ones.

 * Death is a very dull, dreary affair, and my advice to you is

to have nothing whatsoever to do with it.