Art, unless it leads to right action, is no more than the opium of an intelligentsia.
W. Somerset MaughamI always find it more difficult to say the things I mean than the things I don't.
W. Somerset MaughamA soul is a troublesome possession, and when man developed it he lost the Garden of Eden.
W. Somerset MaughamWhen some incident has shattered the career youโve mapped out for yourself, a folly, a crime or a misfortune, you mustnโt think youโre down and out. It may be a stroke of luck, and when you look back years later you may say to yourself that you wouldnโt for anything in the world exchange the new life disaster has forced upon you for the dull, humdrum existence you would have led if circumstances hadnโt intervened.
W. Somerset MaughamBut there are people who take salt with their coffee. They say it gives a tang, a savour, which is peculiar and fascinating. In the same way there are certain places, surrounded by a halo of romance, to which the inevitable disillusionment you experience on seeing them gives a singular spice. You had expected something wholly beautiful and you get an impression which is infinitely more complicated than any that beauty can give you. It is the weakness in the character of a great man which may make him less admirable but certainly more interesting. Nothing had prepared me for Honolulu.
W. Somerset Maugham