W. Somerset Maugham Quotes

Life is having its way with me now. And I'm really pleased.

In the fight between you and the world, back the world.

Sometimes you have to accept you can't win all the time.

Nobody was really happy but everyone could accept.

Men do not settle down. Men surrender.

I'm quite content: although what I'm doing is far from being as I should like, I am complemented often enough all the same.

Who realises all the happiness he desires? Everything is in the hands of God. Therefore one should learn contentment.

Once I wanted total happiness - now I will settle for a little less pain.

Well if you can’t get what you love, You learn to love the things you’ve got .. If you can’t be what you want, You learn to be the things you’re not .. If you can’t get what you need, You learn to need the things that stop you dreaming

I don't want to make this sound negative at all, but in the best way possible I freaking give up. I give up. You can't try and make your life perfect. I'm just trying to have a good time, and I'm just trying to appreciate the things that I have around me. I give up on the 'dream' dream. I think that it's all a dream. I think it's all wonderful and terrible. And I give up in the nicest way.

I want to be done, and actually, go "I had a good run. No regrets. I'm ready to step aside."

Lower your standards and relax as it is.

If something's going to happen for you, it will, you can't make it happen. And it never does happen until you're past the point where you care whether it happens or not. I guess it's for our own good that it always happens that way, because after you stop wanting things is when having them won't make you go crazy.

If you stop complaining and asking for what you never will get, you will have a good life. A good life is not measured by any biblical span.

I'm tired of fighting, Dash. I guess this thing is going to get me.

I see no point in being despondent. We might as well enjoy ourselves during our brief tenure of this life.

Contentment is the door to god. If one is contented, one has already arrived. And the meaning of contentment is absolute acceptance as you are. Contentment means acceptance, discontentment means non-acceptance. A wants to become B - that is discontent. A is perfectly happy in being A, there is no desire to become B - that is contentment.

It's okay if you want to go. Everyone wants you to stay. I want you to stay more than I've ever wanted anything in my life. But that's what I want and I could see why it might not be what you want. So I just wanted to tell you that I understand if you go. It's okay if you have to leave us. It's okay if you want to stop fighting.

If there's one thing I've learned, it's this: We all want everything to be okay. We don't even wish so much for fantastic or marvelous or outstanding. We will happily settle for okay, because most of the time, okay is enough.

There are two ways to be happy: improve your reality, or lower your expectations.

Put personal ambition away from you, and then you will find consolation in living or in dying, whatever may happen to you.

The happiness we seek cannot be found through grasping, trying to hold on to things. It cannot be found through getting serious and uptight about wanting things to go in the direction we think will bring happiness. We are always taking hold of the wrong end of the stick. The point is that the happiness we seek is already here and it will be found through relaxation and letting go rather than through struggle.

Don't Seek Happiness. If you seek it, you won't find it, because seeking is the antithesis of happiness

People have asked if I would go back to my 20s, and I'm like, "Only if I could hold onto the wisdom and the things that I've learned." But in reality, I don't think I'd want to even go back then. I'm so happy with where I'm at. My life is very content. Everything feels really good. I wouldn't want to change any of that. I'm happy for all the ups and the downs, and everything that has led me to where I am. I wouldn't want to lose any of that.

The secret of life is not to have everything you want, but to want everything you have.