William Somerset Maugham, 1874 - 1965
Portrait by Carl Van Vechten (26 May 1934)
Born: 25 January 1874, Paris, France
Died: 16 December 1965, Nice, France
Maugham was born at the British embassy at Paris where his father was the attorney for the embassy. His elder siblings were all in school in England so he was raised as an only child, but his parents both died before he was ten and he was sent to England to live with an uncle, an Anglican vicar who was cold toward his charge. Maugham spoke very little English, and that with a pronounced stammer, so his years at The King's School, Canterbury were unpleasant. At sixtenn he refused to continue at the boarding school and went on to university at Heidelberg, then back to England for medical school. After serving his residency he began to write, and as soon as possible he left medicine although seeing patients of all social strata under stressful situations helped create characters in his writing. He spent most of his life abroad, including ambulance service in France and spying for England at Geneva and Petrograd during World War One. He was permanently living in France from 1928, although he spent the years of WW II in the US, including a period of script writing in Hollywood. He didn't receive critical recognition to match his sales and felt he was "in the first row of the second raters". The book-buying public was correct, he wrote concise stories and plays that clearly portrayed the lives and affairs of his subjects.
Biography from Wikipedia and Authors' Calendar
Additional quotes from Wikiquote. Wikiquote entries are often "sourced" and may include items longer than those included here, particularly for poets, lyricists, and dramatists.
W. Somerset Maugham quotes:
Quotes found : 132 — (15 per page, this is page 1 of 9) 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Next
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- A good style should show no sign of effort. What is written should seem a happy accident. permalink
W. Somerset Maugham - 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. permalink
W. Somerset Maugham - 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. permalink
W. Somerset Maugham - The Moon and Sixpence (1919) - An unfortunate thing about this world is that the good habits are much easier to give up than the bad ones. permalink
W. Somerset Maugham - Anyone can tell the truth, but only very few of us can make epigrams. permalink
W. Somerset Maugham - A Writer's Notebook (1946) - Art is merely the refuge which the ingenious have invented, when they were supplied with food and women, to escape the tediousness of life. permalink
W. Somerset Maugham - Of Human Bondage (1915) - At a dinner party one should eat wisely but not too well, and talk well but not too wisely. permalink
W. Somerset Maugham - A Writer's Notebook (1946) - 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. permalink
W. Somerset Maugham - Cakes and Ale: Or, The Skeleton in the Cupboard (1930) - But when all was said the important thing was to love rather than to be loved. permalink
W. Somerset Maugham - Of Human Bondage (1915) - By the time a man notices that he is no longer young, his youth has long since left him. permalink
W. Somerset Maugham - Common sense and nature will do a lot to make the pilgrimage of life not too difficult. permalink
W. Somerset Maugham - Conscience is the guardian in the individual of the rules which the community has evolved for its own preservation. permalink
W. Somerset Maugham - The Moon and Sixpence (1919) - Considering how foolishly people act and how pleasantly they prattle, perhaps it would be better for the world if they talked more and did less. permalink
W. Somerset Maugham - A Writer's Notebook (1946) - Death doesn't affect the living because it has not happened yet. Death doesn't concern the dead because they have ceased to exist. permalink
W. Somerset Maugham - Do you know that conversation is one of the greatest pleasures in life? But it wants leisure. permalink
W. Somerset Maugham - The Trembling of a Leaf (1921)
Quotes found : 132 — (15 per page, this is page 1 of 9) 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Next
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