Life Quotes

People ask for criticism, but they only want praise.

W. Somerset Maugham

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

W. Somerset Maugham

There are three rules for writing a novel. Unfortunately, no one knows what they are.

W. Somerset Maugham

It is an illusion that youth is happy, an illusion of those who have lost it.

W. Somerset Maugham

You can do anything in this world if you are prepared to take the consequences.

W. Somerset Maugham

We learn resignation not by our own suffering, but by the suffering of others.

W. Somerset Maugham

It is salutary to train oneself to be no more affected by censure than by praise.

W. Somerset Maugham

The most useful thing about a principle is that it can always be sacrificed to expediency.

W. Somerset Maugham

Perfection has one grave defect: it is apt to be dull.

W. Somerset Maugham

When I read a book I seem to read it with my eyes only, but now and then I come across a passage, perhaps only a phrase, which has a meaning for me, and it becomes part of me.

W. Somerset Maugham

We know our friends by their defects rather than by their merits.

W. Somerset Maugham

The writer of prose can only step aside when the poet passes.

W. Somerset Maugham

Have common sense and stick to the point.

W. Somerset Maugham

It seems that the creative faculty and the critical faculty cannot exist together in their highest perfection.

W. Somerset Maugham

The nerves are a problem on trumpet, because when you mess up everyone can hear it. Just remember most people are too polite to say anything about it. That should calm your nerves.

Wynton Marsalis

Only a few act - the rest of us reap the benefits of their risk.

Wynton Marsalis

We always hear about the rights of democracy, but the major responsibility of it is participation.

Wynton Marsalis

There was one thing Beethoven didn't do. When one of his string quartets was played, you can believe the second violin wasn't improvising.

Wynton Marsalis

What, other than injustice, could be the reason that the displaced citizens of New Orleans cannot be accommodated by the richest nation in the world?

Wynton Marsalis

I believe in professionalism, but playing is not like a job. You have to be grateful to have the opportunity to play.

Wynton Marsalis

I didn't want to get that ring around my lips from practicing the trumpet, because I thought the girls wouldn't like me. So I never practiced.

Wynton Marsalis