Frases de William Somerset Maugham

“No hay ninguna mujer que valga nada para el hombre, a menos que el hombre esté enamorado de ella; en este caso, vale todo lo que cuesta.”

“La gente te pide críticas, pero en realidad sólo quiere halagos.”

“Tres clases hay de ignorantes: no saber lo que debiera saberse, saber mal lo que se sabe, y saber lo que no debiera saberse.”

“En su lucha contra el individuo, la sociedad tiene tres armas : ley, opinión publica y conciencia.”

“En tiempos de hipocresía, cualquier sinceridad parece cinismo”

“Si el amor y el deber se encuentran, empieza el estado de gracia y se llega a una felicidad que es muy difícil imaginar.”

“Solo el amor y el arte hacen tolerable la existencia.”

“Uno, con la edad, se libra del deseo de hacer las cosas como los demás y hace tranquilamente y sin miedo lo que le parece a él.”

“La vejez tiene sus placeres, los cuales, aunque diferentes, no son menos que los placeres de la juventud.”

“La mayoría de las personas abandonan sus vicios sólo cuando les causan molestias.”

“Acuérdate de esto: cumplir el deber no tiene más mérito que lavarse la cara. No basta cumplirlo, pues el deber se impone. La única cosa que vale es amarlo.”

“Cada hombre tiene secretos que él mismo ignora.”

“Cuando sólo se piensa en el pasado, es que no se tiene futuro”

“El dinero es como un sexto sentido; sin él no podríamos usar completamente los otros cinco.”

“El dolor une, a veces, pero no enseña a vivir.”

“En ocasiones el exceso es estimulante. Evita que con la moderación se adquiera el mortal efecto de un hábito.”

“La gente no busca razones para hacer lo que quiere hacer, busca excusas.”

“La sensación de la distancia depende menos del espacio que del tiempo.”

“La vida es demasiado corta para hacer tú mismo lo que puedes mandar hacer a otros, pagándoles.”

“Los proverbios y las máximas son el último refugio de los desamparados.”

“Los tres deberes fundamentales de la mujer son ser bonita, ir bien vestida y no contradecir.”

“Ningún dolor nos parece justo y las injusticias siempre disponen mal.”

“Para comer bien en Inglaterra es recomendable desayunar tres veces.”

“Para rezar a Dios con devoción no hace falta creer en Dios según los dogmas de ninguna religión.”

“Si la gente sólo hablara cuando tuviera algo que decir, el ser humano perdería muy pronto el uso del lenguaje.”

“Si no quieres que te mientan, no preguntes.”

“Si otro nos critica y no nos ofendemos, el criticón se desorienta.”

“Solo avanzada ya mi vida me di cuenta de cuán fácil es decir: no lo sé.”

“Sólo una persona mediocre está siempre en su mejor momento.”

“Un filósofo es un tipo que sube a una cumbre en busca del Sol; encuentra niebla, desciende y explica el magnífico espectáculo que ha visto.”

“Para qué fatigarse buscando soluciones, cuando la certeza de encontrarlas es ya un placer delicioso.”

“There is no explanation for evil. It must be looked upon as a necessary part of the order of the universe. To ignore it is childish, to bewail it senseless.”

“A woman can forgive a man for the harm he does her,” he said, “but she can never forgive him for the sacrifices he makes on her account.”

“Tahiti is very far away, and I knew that I should never see it again. A chapter of my life was closed, and I felt a little nearer to inevitable death.”

“The tragedy of love is indifference.”

“Art… is merely the refuge which the ingenious have invented, when they were supplied with food and women, to escape the tediousness of life.”

“A god that can be understood is not a god.”

“Beauty is an ecstasy; it is as simple as hunger. There is really nothing to be said about it.”

“Nothing in the world is permanent, and we're foolish when we ask anything to last, but surely we're still more foolish not to take delight in it while we have it.”

“What mean and cruel things men can do for the love of God.”

“It is not wealth one asks for, but just enough to preserve one's dignity, to work unhampered, to be generous, frank, and independent.”

“Don't you know? Because American women expect to find in their husbands a perfection that English women only hope to find in their butlers.”

“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.”

“I sometimes think,' said the Eternal, 'that the stars never shine more brightly than when reflected in the muddy waters of a wayside ditch.”

“Marriage is a very good thing, but I think it's a mistake to make a habit out of it.”

“Women are always glad to listen when you discourse upon love…”

“He made one laugh sometimes by speaking the truth, but this is a form of humour which gains its force only by its unusualness; it would cease to amuse if it were commonly practised.”

“The modern clergyman has acquired in his study of the science which I believe is called exegesis an astonishing facility for explaining things away.”

“But when all was said the important thing was to love rather than to be loved.”

“… habits in writing as in life are only useful if they are broken as soon as they cease to be advantageous.”

“Life isn't long enough for love and art.”

“We must go through life so inconspicuously that Fate does not notice us.”

“Now it is a funny thing about life; if you refuse to accept anything but the best you very often get it…”

“Old age has its pleasures, which, though different, are not less than the pleasures of youth.”

“I do not confer praise or blame: I accept. I am the measure of all things. I am the centre of the world.”

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

“…you know what the critics are. If you tell the truth they only say you're cynical and it does an author no good to get a reputation for cynicism.”

“You can do anything in this world if you are prepared to take the consequences.”

“It was such a lovely day I thought it was a pity to get up.”

“Sometimes people carry to such perfection the mask they have assumed that in due course they actually become the person they seem.”