W. Somerset Maugham Quotes

When I grow up I want to be an old woman.

It was formerly a terrifying view to me that I should one day be an old woman. I now find that Nature has provided pleasures for every state.

As for old age, embrace and love it. It abounds with pleasure if you know how to use it. The gradually declining years are among the sweetest in a man's life, and I maintain that, even when they have reached the extreme limit, they have their pleasure still.

The pride of youth is in strength and beauty, the pride of old age is in discretion.

Life would be infinitely happier if we could only be born at the age of eighty and gradually approach eighteen.

He who would pass his declining years with honor and comfort, should, when young, consider that he may one day become old, and remember when he is old, that he has once been young.

One's age should be tranquil, as childhood should be playful. Hard work at either extremity of life seems out of place. At midday the sun may burn, and men labor under it; but the morning and evening should be alike calm and cheerful.

It's not the same thing to make a work - a film, a book, a play - about youth as it is to make one about old age.

A hundred things are done today in the divine name of Youth, that if they showed their true colors would be seen by rights to belong rather to old age.

In this respect early youth is exactly like old age; it is a time of waiting for a big trip to an unknown destination. The chief difference is that youth waits for the morning limited and age waits for the night train.

The thing to remember about being young is you eventually get old.

In youth we run into difficulties. In old age difficulties run into us.

What could be more beautiful than a dear old lady growing wise with age? Every age can be enchanting, provided you live within it.

Age, what is it? It's not a figure that has ever meant anything to me.

The three ages of man: youth, middle age and 'my word you do look well'.

Probably the happiest period in life most frequently is in middle age, when the eager passions of youth are cooled, and the infirmities of age not yet begun; as we see that the shadows, which are at morning and evening so large, almost entirely disappear at midday.

He was one of those men who, as in youth they are never very young, so in age are they never very old.

Youth, large, lusty, loving -- Youth, full of grace, force, fascination. Do you know that Old Age may come after you with equal grace, force, fascination?

For the complete life, the perfect pattern includes old age as well as youth and maturity.

I didn't fear old age. I was just becoming increasingly aware of the fact that the only people who said old age was beautiful were usually twenty-three years old.

The evening of life brings with it its lamps.

Old age is not one of the beauties of creation, but it is one of its harmonies.

Old age, especially an honored old age, has so great authority, that this is of more value than all the pleasures of youth.

I'm looking forward to becoming older and quieter.

Happily there exists more than one kind of beauty. There is the beauty of infancy, the beauty of youth, the beauty of maturity, and, believe me, ladies and gentlemen, the beauty of age.