William Somerset Maugham

Man has always sacrificed truth to his vanity, comfort and advantage. He lives by makebelieve.

If a nation values anything more than freedom, it will lose its freedom; and the irony of it is that if it is comfort or money that it values more, it will lose that too.

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

Dying is a very dull, dreary affair. And my advice to you is to have nothing whatever to do with it.

Impropriety is the soul of wit.

Music-hall songs provide the dull with wit, just as proverbs provide them with wisdom.

The degree of a nation's civilization is marked by its disregard for the necessities of existence.

The sad hing about the mediocre is they're always at their best.

It is a funny thing abut life; if you refuse to accept anything but the best you very often get it.

I would sooner read a time-table or a catalogue than nothing at all . . . They are much more entertaining than half the novels that are written.

Music-hall songs provide the dull with wit, just as proverbs provide them with wisdom.

Miłość platoniczna jest to udawanie przed samym sobą, że rewolwer jest nie nabity.

Tylko ludzie mali utrzymują się zawsze na tym samym poziomie.

There are two good things in life -- freedom of thought and freedom of action.

The ability to quote is a serviceable substitute for wit.

It wasn't until late in life that I discovered how easy it is to say 'I don't know'.

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

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

An unfortunate thing about this world is that the good habits are much easier to give up than the bad ones.

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

Only a mediocre writer is always at his best.

She had a pretty gift for quotation, which is a serviceable substitute for wit.

There are three rules for writing a novel. Unfortunately, no one knows what they are.

There are times when I look over the various parts of my character with perplexity. I recognize that I am made up of several persons and that the person that at the moment has the upper hand will inevitably give place to another. But which is the real one? All of them or none?

The highest activities of consciousness have their origins in physical occurrences of the brain just as the loveliest melodies are not too sublime to be expressed by notes.

I can't think of a single Russian novel in which one of the characters goes to a picture gallery.

You know, of course, that the Tasmanians, who never committed adultery, are now extinct.

People ask you for criticism, but they only want praise.

A woman will always sacrifice herself if you give her the opportunity. It is her favourite form of self-indulgence.

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.

Pieniądze to szósty zmyśl, bez którego nie można w pełni wykorzystać pozostałych pięciu.

Zabawne, ale jeżeli w życiu żądasz wszystkiego, co najlepsze, często to dostajesz.