Philosophy Quote by W. Somerset Maugham — Inspiring Words on Life, Love & Wisdom

“A little smoke lost in the air, that was the life of a man.”

“It is one of the defects of my character that I cannot altogether dislike anyone who makes me laugh.”

“When he sacrifices himself man for a moment is greater than God, for how can God, infinite and omnipotent, sacrifice himself?”

“What d'you suppose I care if I'm a gentleman or not? If I were a gentleman I shouldn't waste my time with a vulgar slut like you.”

“Never pause unless you have a reason for it, but when you pause, pause as long as you can.”

“The great tragedy of life is not that men perish, but that they cease to love.”

“In addition to my new outlook on life, in some absurdly simple way, Anissa gave me several new reasons to live. Above all, I had to see her again and find out what, if anything, would happen between her and me.”

“Real change is slow, hard, and imperceptible.”

“What great philosophers do for us is not to hand out such an all-purpose system. It is to light up and clarify some special aspect of life, to supply conceptual tools which will do a certain necessary kind of work. Wide though that area of work may be, it is never the whole, and all ideas lose their proper power when they are used out of their appropriate context. That is why one great philosopher does not necessarily displace another, why there is room for all of them and a great many more whom we do not have yet.”

“The best physician is also a philosopher.”

“Besides our eyes, skin and the other senses through which we receive the shadows of the exterior reality, we have a 'mental eye' (intelligence) with which we can perceive reality as it is.”