We are like people living in a country whose language they know so little that, with all manner of beautiful and profound things to say, they are condemned to the banalities of the conversation manual. Their brain is seething with ideas, and they can only tell you that the umbrella of the gardener's aunt is in the house.
W. Somerset MaughamThe spirit is often most free when the body is satiated with pleasure; indeed, sometimes the stars shine more brightly seen from the gutter than from the hilltop.
W. Somerset MaughamIts a toss-up when you decide to leave the beaten track. Many are called, few are chosen.
W. Somerset MaughamThere was an immeasurable distance between the quick and the dead: they did not seem to belong to the same species; and it was strange to think that but a little while before they had spoken and moved and eaten and laughed.
W. Somerset MaughamWe who are of mature age seldom suspect how unmercifully and yet with what insight the very young judge us.
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 Maugham