W. Somerset Maugham Inspirational Quotations

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

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.

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

It is not true that suffering ennobles the character; happiness does that sometimes, but suffering for the most part, makes men petty and vindictive.

Excess on occasion is exhilarating. It prevents moderation from acquiring the deadening effect of a habit.

When you choose your friends, don't be short-changed by choosing personality over character.

The ability to quote is a serviceable substitute for wit.

Death is a very dull, dreary affair, and my advice to you is to have nothing whatsoever to do with it.

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

Only a mediocre person is always at his best.

Death doesn't affect the living because it has not happened yet. Death doesn't concern the dead because they have ceased to exist.

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

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

The trouble is that thinking looks like loafing. Who wants to pay people for daydreaming?

Impropriety is the soul of wit.

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