W. Somerset Maugham Quotes

I am incapable of directing a film like 'Agneenath.' I can do only what I am good at, so I would have been the worst choice to direct it. It has aggression, action and an inherent violence in it - things I am not capable of directing in my films.

Here is the world. Beautiful and terrible things will happen. Don't be afraid.

Resist much, obey little.

We are not on this earth to accumulate victories, things, and experiences, but to be whittled and sandpapered until what's left is who we truly are.

Then you develop a kind of critical sense about what you write. You can tell when something is good, but it would be just as good in somebody else's work too. You want to hold out for those things only you can say.

Being crazy isn't enough.

The fastest way to become the master of your thoughts and emotions is through challenging situations. If your life is going along fairly smoothly, there are not the same opportunities that enable you to strengthen your power and become the master of your thoughts and emotions. You see, even challenges are beautiful opportunities in disguise.

It's much more important to write than to be written about.

Life is beautiful, as long as it consumes you. When it is rushing through you, destroying you, life is gorgeous, glorious. It's when you burn a slow fire and save fuel, that life's not worth having.

Nobody has the power to take two steps together; you can take only one step at a time.

No artist tolerates reality.

You ask me why I spend my life writing? Do I find entertainment? Is it worthwhile? Above all, does it pay? If not, then, is there a reason?... I write only because there is a voice within me. That will not be still.

To do the useful thing, to say the courageous thing, to contemplate the beautiful thing: that is enough for one man's life.

Everything that we encounter leaves traces behind. Everything contributes imperceptibly to our education

The artist begins with a vision - a creative operation requiring effort. Creativity takes courage.

I myself am made entirely of flaws, stitched together with good intentions.

Despising cowardice in others, I wished to prove myself no coward. Believing in the good, the gentle, the beautiful things of life, I addressed myself to the sweet duty of keeping these attributes for my children's sake and my own. And in striving to provide a living for them, I found a success beyond my wildest dreams.

Let yourself go. Pull out from the depths those thoughts that you do not understand, and spread them out in the sunlight and know the meaning of them.

Magical places are always beautiful and deserve to be contemplated ... Always stay on the bridge between the invisible and the visible.

Now man must learn to live without ideologies religious, political or otherwise. When the mind is not tethered to any ideology, it is free to move to new understandings. And in that freedom flowers all that is good and all that is beautiful.

The more one lives alone on the river or in the open country, the clearer it becomes that nothing is more beautiful or great than to perform the ordinary duties of one's daily life simply and naturally.

He neither serves nor rules, he transmits. His position is humble and the beauty at the crown is not his own. He is merely a channel.

Not everyone is capable of madness; and of those lucky enough to be capable, not many have the courage for it.

Luxury is not a necessity to me, but beautiful and good things are.