More quotes by W. Somerset Maugham

"Love is only a dirty trick played on us to achieve continuation of the species."
"What do we any of us have but our illusions? And what do we ask of others but that we be allowed to keep them?"
"The great tragedy of life is not that men perish, but that they cease to love."
"The only important thing in a book is the meaning that it has for you."
"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."