Dying is a very dull, dreary affair. And my advice to you is to have nothing whatever to do with it.

It's no good trying to keep up old friendships. It's painful for both sides. The fact is, one grows out of people, and the only thing is to face it.

—W. Somerset Maugham in Cakes and Ale or the Skeleton in the Cupboard

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

—W. Somerset Maugham

We are not the same persons this year as last; nor are those we love. It is a happy chance if we, changing, continue to love a changed person.

—W. Somerset Maugham

Sometimes people carry to such perfection the mask they have assumed that in due course they actually become the person they seem.

—W. Somerset Maugham

Every production of an artist should be the expression of an adventure of his soul.

—W. Somerset Maugham

All work is the avoidance of harder work.

—James Richardson in Vectors: Aphorisms & Ten-Second Essays

Remember: no matter where you go, there you are.

—Earl Mac Rauch

Much sheer effort goes into avoiding the truth: left to itself, it sweeps in like the tide.

—Fay Weldon