Frases de William Somerset Maugham

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“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.”

“She was making money. But she could not get over the idea that to earn her living was somewhat undignified, and she was inclined to remind you that she was a lady by birth.”

“The great critic … must be a philosopher, for from philosophy he will learn serenity, impartiality, and the transitoriness of human things.”

“Self-doubt, which is the artist’s bitterest enemy.”

“There are men who are possessed by an urge so strong to do some particular thing that they can't help themselves, they've got to do it. They're prepared to sacrifice everything to satisfy their yearning.”

“It is cruel to discover one's mediocrity only when it is too late.”

“I have been forced to conclude from this that we know our friends by their defects rather than by their merits.”

“Of course it was cause and effect, but in the necessity with which follows the other lay all tragedy of life.”

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

“It is very natural that clever young men should be rather odious. They are conscious of gifts that they do not know how to use. They are exasperated with the world that will not recognize their merit. They have something to give, and no hand is stretched out to receive it. They are impatient for the fame they regard as their due.”

“If forty million people say a foolish thing it does not become a wise one, but the wise man is foolish to give them the lie.”

“The writer of prose can only step aside when the poet passes…”

“Hypocrisy is the most difficult and nerve-racking vice that any man can pursue; it needs an unceasing vigilance and a rare detachment of spirit. It cannot, like adultery or gluttony, be practised at spare moments; it is a whole-time job.”

“It may be that if I lead the life I've planned for myself it may affect others; the effect may be no greater than the ripple caused by a stone thrown in a pond, but one ripple causes another.”

“Men are always the same. Fear makes them cruel.”

“Considering how foolishly people act and how pleasantly they prattle, perhaps it would be better for the world if they talked more and did less.”

“Anyone can tell the truth, but only very few of us can make epigrams.”

“I am a little shy of any assumption of moral indignation. There is always in it an element of self-satisfaction which makes it awkward to anyone who has a sense of humour.”

“I have not been afraid of excess: excess on occasion is exhilarating. It prevents moderation from acquiring the deadening effect of a habit.”

“Follow your inclinations with due regard to the policeman round the corner.”

“There is nothing so degrading as the constant anxiety about one's means of livelihood…Money is like a sixth sense without which you cannot make a complete use of the other five.”

“You know, there are two good things in life, freedom of thought and freedom of action.”

“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.”

“He had a bitter pain in his heart, for he knew that she was still a stranger to him and his hungry love was destined ever to remain unsatisfied.”

“The trouble with our younger authors is that they are all in the sixties.”

“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.”

“There was an immeasurable distance between the quick and the dead: they did not seem to belong to the same species; and it was strange to think that but a little while before they had spoken and moved and eaten and laughed.”

“It is an illusion that youth is happy, an illusion of those who have lost it; but the young know they are wretched, for they are full of the truthless ideals which have been instilled into them, and each time they come in contact with the real they are bruised and wounded.”

“My own belief is that there is hardly anyone whose sexual life, if it were broadcast, would not fill the world at large with surprise and horror.”

“She gathered herself together. No one could describe the scorn of her expression or the contemptuous hatred she put into her answer.
"You men! You filthy dirty pigs! You're all the same, all of you. Pigs! Pigs!"”