Quotes by W. Somerset Maugham

“Love is not everything. It is a part of one — perhaps the lower part — an accessory to man's life, needful for the continuation of the species.”

“I learnt that men were moved by a savage egoism, that love was only the dirty trick nature played on us to achieve the continuation of the species, and I decided that, whatever aims men set themselves, they were deluded, for it was impossible for them to aim at anything but their own selfish pleasures.”

“GERALD. Have you ever watched the lovers in the Park sitting on the benches hour after hour without saying a word? ROSE. Why? GERALD. Because I've always thought that they must be bored to the verge of tears. Now I know they're only happy.”

“ROSE. When a man's in love, he at once makes a pedestal of the Ten Commandments and stands on the top of them with his arms akimbo. When a woman's in love she doesn't care two straws for Thou Shalt and Thou Shalt Not. GERALD. When a woman's in love she can put her heart on the slide of a microscope and examine how it beats. When a man's in love, what do you think he cares for science and philosophy and all the rest of it! ROSE. When a man's in love he can only write sonnets to the moon. When a woman's in love she can still cook his dinner and darn her own stockings.”

“We are not the same persons this year as last; nor are those we love. It is a happy chance if we, changing, continue to love a changed person.”

“The world is hard and cruel. We are here none knows why, and we go none knows whither. We must be very humble. We must see the beauty of quietness. We must go through life so inconspicuously that Fate does not notice us.”

“It's no good trying to keep up old friendships. It's painful for both sides. The fact is, one grows out of people, and the only thing is to face it.”