Heaven knows what pains the author has been at, what bitter experience he has endured and what heartache suffered, to give some chance reader a few hours' relaxation or to while away the tedium of a journey.
W. Somerset MaughamOne cannot find peace in work or in pleasure, in the world or in a convent, but only in one's soul.
W. Somerset MaughamA 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.
W. Somerset MaughamIt might be that to surrender to happiness was to accept defeat, but it was a defeat better than many victories.
W. Somerset MaughamA good story is obviously a difficult thing to invent, but its difficulty is a poor reason for despising it.
W. Somerset MaughamI don't understand anything. Life is so strange. I feel like some one who's lived all his life by a duck-pond and suddenly is shown the sea. It makes me a little breathless, and yet it fills me with elation. I don't want to die, I want to live. I'm beginning to feel a new courage. I feel like one of those old sailors who set sail for undiscovered seas and I think my soul hankers for the unknown.
W. Somerset Maugham