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William Somerset Maugham Zitate
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William Somerset Maugham [ˈsʌməsɪt mɔːm] , auch bekannt als W. Somerset Maugham, war ein englischer Erzähler und Dramatiker. Er zählt zu den meistgelesenen englischsprachigen Autoren des 20. Jahrhunderts.

William Somerset Maugham errang mit seinem 1897 veröffentlichten Erstlingswerk Liza of Lambeth frühen literarischen Erfolg – und löste einen Skandal aus. In dem Roman verarbeitete Maugham Erfahrungen, die er als angehender Arzt in den Armenvierteln Londons gemacht hatte. Das Bürgertum sah es als unpassend an, die Welt der Arbeiter derart naturalistisch darzustellen.

Auf das Buch folgten Jahre der Selbstbestimmung als Autor. Zuerst arbeitete er als Dramatiker und schrieb Theaterstücke wie The Circle, Our Betters und The Constant Wife. Im frühen 20. Jahrhundert wurden gleichzeitig vier Theaterstücke von ihm in London aufgeführt. Seine Produktivität war erstaunlich: in der Regel brauchte er nur eine Woche, jeden Aufzug zu schreiben, und eine weitere Woche, das Stück zu redigieren. Später widmete er sich der Prosa und verfasste zahlreiche Romane und Kurzgeschichten.

Als Maughams bedeutendste Arbeit wird meist der Roman Der Menschen Hörigkeit angesehen, eine autobiographische Geschichte, deren Held, Philip Carey, wie Maugham als Waise bei seinem frömmlerischen Onkel aufwächst und durch einen Klumpfuß gehandicapt ist.

✵ 25. Januar 1874 – 16. Dezember 1965  •  Andere Namen Уильям Сомерсет Моэм
William Somerset Maugham Foto
William Somerset Maugham: 163 Zitate15 Gefällt mir

William Somerset Maugham Berühmte Zitate

„Die meisten Leute empfinden es als Beleidigung, wenn sie jemanden lieben und wenn ihre Liebe nicht erwidert wird. Sie werden böse und verbittert.“

William Somerset Maugham buch Der bunte Schleier

Original: (en) Most people, as far as I can see, when they&#x27;re in love with someone and the love isn&#x27;t returned feel that they have a grievance. They grow angry and bitter. <br class="br">Quelle: Der bunte Schleier. (Orig.: The painted veil.) Aus dem Englischen übersetzt von Anna Keller. Berlin: Verlag Volk und Welt. 1. Auflage, 1978. S. 68 <br class="br">Quelle: The Painted Veil. Chap. XXIII gutenberg.ca https://gutenberg.ca/ebooks/maughamws-paintedveil/maughamws-paintedveil-00-h.html

„Jede Generation lächelt über die Väter, lacht über die Großväter und bewundert die Urgroßväter.“

William Somerset Maugham

„Die Leute bitten um Kritik, aber sie wollen nur gelobt werden.“

William Somerset Maugham buch Der Menschen Hörigkeit

(en) People ask you for criticism, but they only want praise. <br class="br">Quelle: Der Menschen Hörigkeit, 1917 <br class="br">Quelle: Of Human Bondage. Chap. L gutenberg.org https://www.gutenberg.org/files/351/351-h/351-h.htm

„Der kluge Mann reist nur in Gedanken.“

William Somerset Maugham

Original: (en) The wise man travels only in imagination. <br class="br">Quelle: Honolulu. In: Betörende Südsee. Aus dem Englischen übersetzt von Ilse Krämer. Frankfurt/M - Berlin - Wien: Ullstein Verlag. 1985. S. 142 <br class="br">Quelle: Honolulu. In: The Trembling of a Leaf – Little Stories of the South Sea Islands. Cap. III gutenberg.org https://www.gutenberg.org/files/26854/26854-h/26854-h.htm

William Somerset Maugham: Zitate auf Englisch

“It's no use crying over spilt milk, because all of the forces of the universe were bent on spilling it.”

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W. Somerset Maugham buch Der Menschen Hörigkeit

Quelle: Of Human Bondage (1915), Ch. 68

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

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W. Somerset Maugham buch Der Menschen Hörigkeit

Quelle: Of Human Bondage (1915), Ch. 88

“[…] the Eternal turned his attention to the three shades who stood humbly and yet hopefully before him. The quick, with so short a time to live, when they talk of themselves, talk too much; but the dead, with eternity before them, are so verbose that only angels could listen to them with civility.”

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W. Somerset Maugham

"The judgement seat", p. 314
Short Stories, Collected short stories 1

“Like all weak men he laid an exaggerated stress on not changing one's mind.”

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W. Somerset Maugham buch Der Menschen Hörigkeit

Quelle: Of Human Bondage (1915), Ch. 39

“I made up my mind long ago that life was too short to do anything for myself that I could pay others to do for me.”

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W. Somerset Maugham

"1941", p. 336
A Writer's Notebook (1946)

“A soul is a troublesome possession, and when man developed it he lost the Garden of Eden.”

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W. Somerset Maugham

Red http://books.google.com/books?id=6ZZgZw5yX8QC&amp;q=&amp;quot;a+soul+is+a+troublesome+possession+and+when+man+developed+it+he+lost+the+Garden+of+Eden&amp;quot;&amp;pg=PA413#v=onepage (1921)

“Few misfortunes can befall a boy which bring worse consequences than to have a really affectionate mother.”

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W. Somerset Maugham

"1896", p. 28
A Writer's Notebook (1946)

“Old age is ready to undertake tasks that youth shirked because they would take too long.”

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W. Somerset Maugham buch The Summing Up

Quelle: The Summing Up (1938), p. 290

“The writer is more concerned to know than to judge.”

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W. Somerset Maugham buch The Moon and Sixpence

Quelle: The Moon and Sixpence (1919), Ch. 41, p. 140

“Things were easier for the old novelists who saw people all of a piece. Speaking generally, their heroes were good through and through, their villains wholly bad.”

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W. Somerset Maugham

"1922", p. 196
A Writer's Notebook (1946)

“Money is like a sixth sense - and you can't make use of the other five without it.”

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W. Somerset Maugham

NY Times Magazine (October 18, 1958)

“There's always one who loves and one who lets himself be loved.”

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W. Somerset Maugham buch Der Menschen Hörigkeit

Quelle: Of Human Bondage (1915), Ch. 71

“To eat well in England, you should have a breakfast three times a day.”

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W. Somerset Maugham

Quoted in Somerset Maugham (1980) by Ted Morgan

“I'll give you my opinion of the human race in a nutshell… their heart's in the right place, but their head is a thoroughly inefficient organ.”

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W. Somerset Maugham buch The Summing Up

Quelle: The Summing Up (1938), p. 206

“Sentimentality is only sentiment that rubs you up the wrong way.”

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W. Somerset Maugham

"1941"
A Writer's Notebook (1946)

“I don't think of the past. The only thing that matters is the everlasting present.”

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W. Somerset Maugham buch The Moon and Sixpence

Quelle: The Moon and Sixpence (1919), Ch. 21, p. 79

“After all, 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.”

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W. Somerset Maugham

Arnold, in The Circle: A Comedy in Three Acts (1921), p. 58-59
Plays

“…when you are young you take the kindness people show you as your right…”

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W. Somerset Maugham

Quelle: Cakes and Ale: Or, The Skeleton in the Cupboard (1930), p. 166

“It might be that to surrender to happiness was to accept defeat, but it was a defeat better than many victories.”

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W. Somerset Maugham buch Der Menschen Hörigkeit

Quelle: Of Human Bondage (1915), Ch. 122

“It is unsafe to take your reader for more of a fool than he is.”

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W. Somerset Maugham buch Ten Novels and Their Authors

Ten Novels and Their Authors (1954)

“He found himself now in the agreeable situation of being able to do what was best for others and at the same time what was convenient to himself.”

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W. Somerset Maugham buch The Razor's Edge

p, 125
The Razor's Edge (1943)

“He had doubts about the utility of examination on subjects which had been crammed for the occasion. He wanted common sense.”

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W. Somerset Maugham buch Der Menschen Hörigkeit

Quelle: Of Human Bondage (1915), Ch. 10

“He was always seeking for a meaning in life, and here it seemed to him that a meaning was offered; but it was obscure and vague. He was profoundly troubled. He saw what looked like the truth as by flashes of lightning on a dark, stormy night you might see a mountain range. He seemed to see that a man need not leave his life to chance, but that his will was powerful; he seemed to see that self-control might be as passionate and as active as the surrender to passion; he seemed to see that the inward life might be as manifold, as varied, as rich with experience, as the life of one who conquered realms and explored unknown lands.”

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W. Somerset Maugham buch Der Menschen Hörigkeit

Quelle: Of Human Bondage (1915), Ch. 88

“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.”

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W. Somerset Maugham buch The Summing Up

Quelle: The Summing Up (1938), p. 297

“Passion is destructive; if it does not destroy, it dies.”

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W. Somerset Maugham buch The Razor's Edge

The Razor's Edge (1943)

“Men seek but one thing in life — their pleasure.”

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W. Somerset Maugham buch Der Menschen Hörigkeit

Quelle: Of Human Bondage (1915), Ch. 45

“One of the falsest of proverbs is that you must lie on the bed that you have made. The experience of life shows that people are constantly doing things which must lead to disaster, and yet by some chance manage to evade the result of their folly.”

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W. Somerset Maugham buch The Moon and Sixpence

Quelle: The Moon and Sixpence (1919), Ch. 33, p. 119

“Both these men are in love with Natasha, Count Rostov's younger daughter, and in her Tolstoy has created the most delightful girl in fiction. Nothing is so difficult as to portray a young girl who is at once charming and interesting. Generally the young girls of fiction are colorless (Amelia in Vanity Fair), priggish (Fanny in Mansfield Park), too clever by half (Constantia Durham in The Egoist), or little geese (Dora in David Copperfield), silly flirts or innocent beyound belief. It is understandable that they should be an awkward subject for the novelist to deal with, for at that tender age the personality is undeveloped. Similarly a painter can only make a face interesting when the vicissitudes of life, thought, love and suffering have given it character. In the portrait of a girl the best he can do is to represent the charm and beauty of youth. But Natasha is entirely natural. She is sweet, sensitive, and sympathetic, willful, childish, womanly already, idealistic, quick-tempered, warm-hearted, headstrong, capricious and in everything enchanting. Tolstoy created many women and they are wonderfully true to life, but never another who wins the affection of the reader as does Natasha.”

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W. Somerset Maugham

Leo Tolstoy and War and Peace
Great Novelists and Their Novels

“Bob Forestier had pretended for so many years to be a gentleman that in the end, forgetting that it was all a fake, he had found himself driven to act as in that stupid, conventional brain of his he thought a gentleman must act. No longer knowing the difference between sham and real, he had sacrificed his life to a spurious heroism.”

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W. Somerset Maugham

"The lion's skin", p. 283
Short Stories, Collected short stories 1

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