1. When they fall in love, the difference between men and women is: women can fall in love all day long, while men can only fall in love for a few minutes. ---- Somerset Maugham

2. The soul of a man wanders in the sky, but a woman wants to imprison it in her own account book. ---- Somerset Maugham

3. People talk about beauty casually, but they don’t know what beauty is. This word has been overused and lost its original power; all bits and pieces are regarded as beautiful. For the sake of name, the meaning of beauty itself disappears. ---- Maugham

4. I only know desire. This is normal and healthy. Love is a disease. ---- Maugham

5. In my opinion, in art, the most attention-grabbing thing is the artist's personality. If his personality is unique, I will be happy to forgive him even if he has a thousand shortcomings. ---- Maugham

6. I don’t need love. I don't have time for love. This is the weakness of human nature. I'm a man and sometimes I need a woman. When my desires are satisfied, I'll get busy with other things. ---- Maugham

7. I feel that some people are not born in their ideal place. Chance throws them into a certain environment by chance, but they are always full of nostalgia for their hometown in their hearts; they don't know where this hometown is. They are strangers in the place of their birth, and the tree-lined alleys they have known since childhood or the crowded streets where they have played are but stops on the journey of life. They seemed to be in a different place, unaccompanied and alone. Perhaps, it is this sense of strangeness that makes them travel far away from home to find their eternal home. ---- Somerset Maugham

8. It is puzzling that people in civilized society waste their short lives on boring entertainment. ---- Somerset Maugham/Huang Xiejun

9. Why do you think beauty, the most precious thing in the world, will be like pebbles on the beach, which a casual passerby can pick up casually? Beauty is wonderful and strange. Only through the torture of the soul can an artist create beauty from the chaos of the universe. And when beauty appears, it is not for everyone to recognize itself. To know it, you must repeat the same strange journey as the artist. ---- Maugham

10. I think it is a ridiculous misunderstanding to regard art as a skill that only craftsmen can fully understand. Art is the expression of emotion, and emotion uses a language that everyone can understand. ---- Maugham

11. Conversion can appear in many forms and can be achieved through many ways. Some people need to go through fierce disasters, like a fierce torrent that can break a stone into pieces; for others, it comes gradually, like a constant drop of water that will eventually penetrate the stone. Strickland combines the obsessive willfulness with the ferocity and brutality of an apostle. ---- Maugham

12. When a person falls into the water, it doesn't matter how he swims. It doesn't matter whether he swims well or not: he has to struggle out. The big thing is not to drown. . ---- Maugham

13. The passion that dominates Strickland is the passion to create beauty. This passion left him restless and made him search everywhere. He is a perpetual pilgrim, seeking a holy land, and the demons that drive him are ruthless. Some people have such a strong need for truth that they are willing to destroy the very foundation on which they live in order to obtain it. Strickland is such a person, but for him, beauty replaces truth. ---- Maugham

14. We do not think it is hypocritical to remain silent about deviant behavior because we cherish feathers. ---- Somerset Maugham

15. There were six pennies all over the ground, but he looked up and saw the moon. ---- Somerset Maugham

16. People talk about beauty nonchalantly, but have no sense of making words or sentences. They just use the word beauty casually, causing it to lose its power. Countless trivial things are labeled with the word "beauty", so the things that are truly "beautiful" are deprived of their lofty status. They call a dress, a dog, a sermon beautiful, but when they are faced with real beauty, they cannot recognize it. They falsely emphasize beauty to decorate their worthless thoughts and weaken their already fragile emotions. It is like the mysterious power of charlatans to forge certain artifacts at will, and people have lost the appreciation they abused.

---- Somerset Maugham

17. I didn’t understand at that time how contradictory human nature was; I didn’t know how much hypocrisy there was in sincerity, how much despicability there was in nobleness, or how much kindness there was in evil. . ---- Maugham

18. The lesson I learned from this incident is that the author should get the reward of writing a book from the joy of writing and from the venting of the thoughts accumulated in his heart; for Everything else should not matter. He should take it indifferently whether his work succeeds or fails, whether he is praised or vilified. ---- Somerset Maugham

19. What you want to do most, live the life you want to live, and be at peace with yourself, how can it be called violating yourself? Being a famous surgeon, earning 10,000 pounds a year, and marrying a beautiful wife is considered success? I think it depends on how you view the meaning of life, what obligations you owe to society, and what requirements you have for yourself. ---- Maugham

20. It is human nature to make up myths. If an outstanding person encounters something surprising or mysterious in his career, people will grasp it greedily, interpret it into a legend, and then believe in it fervently. This is a romantic protest against ordinary life. ----William Somerset Maugham