W. Somerset Maugham Quotes

A little smoke lost in the air, that was the life of a man.

What is this world? A mere curl of smoke for the wind to scatter.

Time stays, we go.

The frailty of everything revealed at last. Old and troubling issues resolved into nothingness and night. The last instance of a thing takes the class with it. Turns out the light and is gone. Look around you. Ever is a long time. But the boy knew what he knew. That ever is no time at all.

In television, everything is gone with the speed of light, literally. It is no field for anybody with intimations of immortality.

The thing is to appreciate the fragile wonder of it all, down to the last breath, down to the dying embers of consciousness.

Faith, sir, we are here today, and gone tomorrow.

What ever truth drops on it eventually grinds to a powder.

A human being is only breath and shadow.

How quickly passes away the glory of this world.

Be vigilant, for nothing one achieves lasts forever.

'Never' is too much of a word. Nothing lasts forever.

In the presence of eternity, the mountains are as transient as the clouds.

Time is but the shadow of the world upon the background of Eternity.

Everything passes. Nobody gets anything for keeps. And that's how we've got to live.

Time destroys everything.

Human life is as evanescent as the morning dew or a flash of lightning.

Time is not kind to everything.

Time marks us while we are marking time.

The present will not long endure.

What, if as said, man is a bubble.

Oh, how swiftly the glory of the world passes away!

The temporal quality of all things was being firmly impressed upon me.

I came like Water, and like Wind I go.

Time is the devourer of all things.