“Dying is a very dull, dreary affair. And my advice to you is to have nothing whatever to do with it.”

— W. Somerset Maugham

Quoted in Conversations with Willie (1978) by Robin Maugham

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "Dying is a very dull, dreary affair. And my advice to you is to have nothing whatever to do with it." by W. Somerset Maugham?

W. Somerset Maugham photo

W. Somerset Maugham 158

British playwright, novelist, short story writer 1874–1965

Related quotes

“So take my advice: whatever you do? Don’t blink”

Meg Cabot (1967) Novelist

Source: Abandon

“If you are joyful, whatever you do you will do it to the hilt because you have nothing to hold back, nothing to fear, isn't it?”

Sadhguru (1957) Yogi, mystic, visionary and humanitarian

Joy 24x7

“Those who try to give us advice on matters of human rights do nothing but provoke an ironic smile among us. We will not permit anyone to interfere in our affairs.”

Konstantin Chernenko (1911–1985) Soviet politician

Quoted in "Simpson's contemporary quotations" - by James Beasley Simpson - Page 2

“My advice is, do not try to inhabit another's soul. You have your own.”

Jim Harrison (1937–2016) American novelist, poet, essayist

Source: Songs of Unreason

“My advice is precisely the advice my mother gave me. If you believe you have talent, the next thing you must have is determination.”

Cass Elliot (1941–1974) American singer

As quoted in "Twenty Questions for Mama Cass" by Frederick Todd in American Girl magazine (June 1970)
Context: My advice is precisely the advice my mother gave me. If you believe you have talent, the next thing you must have is determination. If you keep working, keep striving, and try always to move forward a little bit with every job you do, you’ll eventually make it. And I believe that!

“Whatever you do will be insignificant, but it is very important that you do it.”

Mahatma Gandhi (1869–1948) pre-eminent leader of Indian nationalism during British-ruled India

The earliest attribution of this to Gandhi yet located is in a T-shirt advertisement in Mother Jones, Vol. 8, No. 5 (June 1983), p. 46
Disputed

“You have heard the queen's advice. My gift is below. Would you wait to see it until you have decided what you will do with hers?”

Megan Whalen Turner book A Conspiracy of Kings

Eugenides to Sophos
A Conspiracy of Kings (2010)

“No. It is not wonderful. It is an ugly world. Not like this one. Anarres is all dusty and dry hills. All meager, all dry. And the people aren’t beautiful. They have big hands and feet, like me and the waiter there. But not big bellies. They get very dirty, and take baths together, nobody here does that. The towns are very small and dull, they are dreary. No palaces. Life is dull, and hard work. You can’t always have what you want, or even what you need, because there isn’t enough. You Urrasti have enough. Enough air, enough rain, grass, oceans, food, music, buildings, factories, machines, books, clothes, history. You are rich, you own. We are poor, we lack. You have, we do not have. Everything is beautiful here. Only not the faces. On Anarres nothing is beautiful, nothing but the faces. The other faces, the men and women. We have nothing but that, nothing but each other. Here you see the jewels, there you see the eyes. And in the eyes you see the splendor, the splendor of the human spirit. Because our men and women are free—possessing nothing, they are free. And you the possessors are possessed. You are all in jail. Each alone, solitary, with a heap of what he owns. You live in prison, die in prison. It is all I can see in your eyes—the wall, the wall!”

Ursula K. Le Guin Hainish Cycle

Source: Hainish Cycle, (1974), Chapter 7 (pp. 228-229)

“In going where you have to go, and doing what you have to do, and seeing what you have to see, you dull and blunt the instrument you write with. But I would rather have it bent and dulled and know I had to put it on the grindstone again and hammer it into shape and put a whetstone to it, and know that I had something to write about, than to have it bright and shining and nothing to say, or smooth and well oiled in the closet, but unused.”

Ernest Hemingway (1899–1961) American author and journalist

Preface to The First Forty-Nine Stories (1944)

“If you didn't do anything that wasn't good for you it would be a very dull life. What are you gonna do? Everything that is pleasant in life is dangerous. Have you noticed that? I'd like to find the bastard that thought that one up.”

Lemmy Kilmister (1945–2015) British singer-songwriter

Related topics