W. Somerset Maugham Quotes

All who consult on doubtful matters, should be void of hatred, friendship, anger, and pity.

If what charms you is nothing but abstract principles, sit down and turn them over quietly in your mind: but never dub yourself a Philosopher.

Philosophy cannot be taught; it is the application of the sciences to truth.

A philosopher is a person who doesn't care which side his bread is buttered on; he knows he eats both sides anyway.

Do you come to a philosopher as to a cunning man, to learn something by magic or witchcraft, beyond what can be known by common prudence and discretion?

It needs a good deal of philosophy not to be mortified by the thought of persons who have voluntarily abandoned everything that for the most of us makes life worth living and are devoid of envy of what they have missed. I have never made up my mind whether they are fools or wise men.

To become a philosopher, start by walking very slowly.

I don't pay too much attention to the positive reviews or the negative reviews because if you believe one, you've gotta believe the other.

To a philosopher no circumstance, however trifling, is too minute.

The duty of criticism is neither to depreciate nor dignify by partial representations, but to hold out the light of reason, whatever it may discover; and to promulgate the determinations of truth, whatever she shall dictate

With the experience to judge, one need not pre-judge.

Philosophy is not in a state of external reflection on other domains, but in a state of active and internal alliance with them, and it is neither more abstract nor more difficult.

The real searcher after truth will not receive the old because it is old, or reject the new because it is new. He will not believe men because they are dead, or contradict them because they are alive. With him an utterance is worth the truth, the reason it contains, without the slightest regard to the author. He may have been a king or serf - a philosopher or servant, - but the utterance neither gains nor loses in truth or reason. Its value is absolutely independent of the fame or station of the man who gave it to the world.

Philosophy appears to some people as a homogenous milieu: there thoughts are born and die, there systems are built, and there, in turn, they collapse. Others take Philosophy for a specific attitude which we can freely adopt at will. Still others see it as a determined segment of culture. In our view Philosophy does not exist.

I don't buy the hype when everybody is saying how wonderful things are and how great I am, and I don't get too down when people say, "This is a disaster and he's done for."

Dispassion is the best of mental states. . . .

No praise, no blame. Just so.

Philosophy is the sum total of all that you know and what you decide is valuable.

What is it to be a philosopher? Is it not to be prepared against events?

Philosophy is in fact a quest for wisdom based in sophia; that quest for wisdom has everything to do with a love of wisdom.

Impartiality is a pompous name for indifference, which is an elegant name for ignorance.

When men comfort themselves with philosophy, 'tis not because they have got two or three sentences, but because they have digested those sentences, and made them their own: philosophy is nothing but discretion.

In order to judge properly, one must get away somewhat from what one is judging, after having loved it. This is true of countries, of persons, and of oneself.

I am getting old and the sign of old age is that I begin to philosophize and ponder over problems which should not be my concern at all.

A dry soul is wisest and best.