Maugham on Posterity

W. Somerset Maugham, Cakes and Ale (New York: Doubleday, Doran & Co., 1930), p. 137:

The elect sneer at popularity; they are inclined even to assert that it is a proof of mediocrity; but they forget that posterity makes its choice not from among the unknown writers of a period, but from among the known. It may be that some great masterpiece which deserves immortality has fallen still-born from the press, but posterity will never hear of it; it may be that posterity will scrap all the best sellers of our day, but it is among them it must choose.