Quotations by W. Somerset Maugham:

Got some feedbacks regarding my English writing from Prof. Holden, and he suggested me to check out W.Somerset Maugham's short stories. "He has a very clean style, not difficult but worth to spend some decent time with."
And amusingly, I found he is the author of the Moon and Sixpences, my favorite! It was a very eye-opening story, about self-realization of an artist.

Well, if I am sure it is the fate echo on me....

• It is an illusion that youth is happy, an illusion of those who have lost it. 
• Beauty is an ecstasy; it is as simple as hunger. There is really nothing to be said about it. It is like the perfume of a rose: you can smell it and that is all. 
• The artist produces for the liberation of his soul. It is his nature to create as it is the nature of water to run down the hill. 
• 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. 
• We know our friends by their defects rather than by their merits. 
•  Imagination grows by exercise and contrary to common belief is more powerful in the mature than in the young. 
• 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. 
• In the country the darkness of night is friendly and familiar, but in a city, with its blaze of lights, it is unnatural, hostile and menacing. It is like a monstrous vulture that hovers, biding its time. 
• The common idea that success spoils people by making them vain, egotistic, and self-complacent is erroneous; on the contrary, it makes them, for the most part, humble, tolerant, and kind. Failure makes people cruel and bitter. 
• Perfection is a trifle dull. It is not the least of life's ironies that this, which we all aim at, is better not quite achieved. 
• A man marries to have a home, but also because he doesn't want to be bothered with sex and all that sort of thing. 
• An unfortunate thing about this world is that the good habits are much easier to give up than the bad ones. 
• Death is a very dull, dreary affair, and my advice to you is to have nothing whatsoever to do with it.