WIST

Common sense appears to be only another name for the thoughtlessness of the unthinking. It is made of the prejudices of childhood, the idiosyncracies of individual character, and the opinion of the newspapers.

William Somerset Maugham (1874-1965) English novelist and playwright
“Clinical Notes,” American Mercury (Nov 1924)

She had a pretty gift for quotation, which is a serviceable substitute for wit.

William Somerset Maugham (1874-1965) English novelist and playwright
(Attributed)

I would sooner read a timetable or a catalog than nothing at all.

William Somerset Maugham (1874-1965) English novelist and playwright
(Attributed)

There is hardly anyone whose sexual life, if it were broadcast, would not fill the world at large with surprise and horror.

William Somerset Maugham (1874-1965) English novelist and playwright
(Attributed)

An unfortunate thing about this world is that the good habits are much easier to give up than the bad ones.

William Somerset Maugham (1874-1965) English novelist and playwright
(Attributed)

What mean and cruel things men do for the love of God.

William Somerset Maugham (1874-1965) English novelist and playwright
A Writer’s Notebook

There are few minds in a century that can look upon a new idea without terror. Fortunately for the rest of us, there are very few new ideas about.

William Somerset Maugham (1874-1965) English novelist and playwright
A Writer’s Notebook, “1896″ (1949)

From the earliest times, the old have rubbed it into the young that they are wiser than they, and before the young had discovered what nonsense this was they were old too, and it profited them to carry on the imposture.

William Somerset Maugham (1874-1965) English novelist and playwright
Cakes and Ale, ch. 11 (1930)

It’s asking a great deal that things should appeal to your reason as well as your sense of the aesthetic.

William Somerset Maugham (1874-1965) English novelist and playwright
Of Human Bondage (1915)

It is not difficult to be unconventional in the eyes of the world when your unconventionality is but the convention of your set.

William Somerset Maugham (1874-1965) English novelist and playwright
The Moon and Sixpence

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

William Somerset Maugham (1874-1965) English novelist and playwright
The Summing Up (1938)

It is dangerous to let the public behind the scenes. They are easily disillusioned and then they are angry with you, for it was the illusion they loved.

William Somerset Maugham (1874-1965) English novelist and playwright
The Summing Up (1938)

The prestige you acquire by being able to tell your friends that you know famous men proves only that you are yourself of small account.

William Somerset Maugham (1874-1965) English novelist and playwright
The Summing Up (1938)

Excess on occasion is exhilarating.  It prevents moderation from acquiring the deadening effect of habit.

William Somerset Maugham (1874-1965) English novelist and playwright
The Summing Up, ch. 15 (1938)

Suffering did not ennoble; it degraded. It made men selfish, mean, petty and suspicious. It absorbed them in small things … it made them less than men.

William Somerset Maugham (1874-1965) English novelist and playwright
The Summing Up, ch. 19 (1938)
On his experiences as a medical student and the patients he observed.

Now that I have grown old, I realize that for most of us it is not enough to have achieved personal success. One’s best friend must also have failed.

William Somerset Maugham (1874-1965) English novelist and playwright
Comment (1959)

On his 85th birthday. Quoted in Richard Cordell, Somerset Maugham: A Biographical and Critical Study (1961). Cordell mentions the influence of La Rochefoucauld, and the quote is often attributed to him though it is not in his Maxims. Also attributed to Gore Vidal, Iris Murdoch, Genghis Khan. (More info here.)

Pithier (and more common) paraphrases:

• "It is not enough to succeed; one’s best friend must fail."
• "It is not enough to succeed; one’s friends must fail."
• "It is not enough to succeed; others must fail."
• "It’s not enough that I should succeed, others should fail."
• "It is not sufficient that I succeed –- all others must fail."