If you refuse to accept anything but the best, you very often get it.
W. Somerset MaughamThere is no more merit in having read a thousand books than in having ploughed a thousand fields.
W. Somerset MaughamNature has neither love nor hate, and with indifference smiles upon the light at heart and to the heavy brings a deeper sorrow.
W. Somerset MaughamTo Lucy it was an admirable study, the contrast between the man who threw his whole soul into a certain aim, which he pursued with a savage intensity, knowing that the end was a dreadful, lonely death; and the man who was making up his mind deliberately to gather what was beautiful in life, and to cultivate its graces as though it were a flower garden.
“And the worst of it is that it will all be the same in a hundred years,” said Dick. “We shall both be forgotten long before then, you with your strenuousness, and I with my folly.”
“And what conclusion do you draw from that?” asked Mrs. Crowley.
“Only that the psychological moment has arrived for a whisky and soda.
I adore good food as I adore all the other pleasant things of life, and because I have that gift I am able to look upon the future with equanimity.”
“Why?” asked Alec.
“Because a love for good food is the only thing that remains with man when he grows old. Love? What is love when you are five and fifty and can no longer hide the disgraceful baldness of your pate. Ambition? What is ambition when you have discovered that honours are to the pushing and glory to the vulgar. Finally we must all reach an age when every passion seems vain, every desire not worth the trouble of achieving it; but then there still remain to the man with a good appetite three pleasures each day, his breakfast, his luncheon, and his dinner.
Do you know, it seems to me that a great deal of nonsense is talked about the dignity of work. Work is a drug that dull people take to avoid the pangs of unmitigated boredom. It has been adorned with fine phrases, because it is a necessity to most men, and men always gild the pill they’re obliged to swallow. Work is a sedative. It keeps people quiet and contented. It makes them good material for their leaders. I think the greatest imposture of Christian times is the sanctification of labour. You see, the early Christians were slaves, and it was necessary to show them that their obligatory toil was noble and virtuous. But when all is said and done, a man works to earn his bread and to keep his wife and children; it is a painful necessity, but there is nothing heroic in it. If people choose to put a higher value on the means than on the end, I can only pass with a shrug of the shoulders, and regret the paucity of their intelligence.
W. Somerset MaughamMighty is he who conquers himself
W. Somerset MaughamYou know, any man can get any woman he wants if he tries hard enough, there's nothing in that, but once he's got her, only a man who thinks the world of women can get rid of her without humiliating her.
W. Somerset MaughamThere is a certain elegance in wasting time. Any fool can waste money, but when you waste time you waste what is priceless.
W. Somerset MaughamFrom a social standpoint the man of science does not exist.
W. Somerset MaughamMots clés scientist
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