Quotes from book
The Summing Up

The Summing Up

W. Somerset Maugham

The Summing Up is a literary memoir by W. Somerset Maugham, written when he was 64 years old, first published in 1938. It covered his life from 1890 to 1938. The subject matter includes his childhood, his initial success in theater, his transition from theater to fiction writing, and other miscellaneous topics such as travel, and philosophy. It is a small book filled with memorable quotes.

“Every production of an artist should be the expression of an adventure of his soul.”

W. Somerset Maugham book The Summing Up

Source: The Summing Up (1938), p. 310

“There is no explanation for evil. It must be looked upon as a necessary part of the order of the universe. To ignore it is childish, to bewail it senseless.”

W. Somerset Maugham book The Summing Up

Source: The Summing Up (1938), p. 285

“… habits in writing as in life are only useful if they are broken as soon as they cease to be advantageous.”

W. Somerset Maugham book The Summing Up

Source: The Summing Up (1938), p. 182

“Old age has its pleasures, which, though different, are not less than the pleasures of youth.”

W. Somerset Maugham book The Summing Up

Source: The Summing Up (1938), p. 290

“There is only one thing about which I am certain, and this is that there is very little about which one can be certain.”

W. Somerset Maugham book The Summing Up

Source: The Summing Up (1938), Ch. 5, p. 12 http://books.google.com/books?id=2hNbAAAAMAAJ&q=%22There+is+only+one+thing+about+which+I+am+certain+and+this+is%22&pg=PA12#v=onepage- 13 http://books.google.com/books?id=2hNbAAAAMAAJ&q=%22that+there+is+very+little+about+which+one+can+be+certain%22&pg=PA13#v=onepage

“There is a sort of man who pays no attention to his good actions, but is tormented by his bad ones. This is the type that most often writes about himself.”

W. Somerset Maugham book The Summing Up

Ch. 4, p. 11 http://books.google.com/books?id=Ma3RAAAAMAAJ&q=%22There+is+a+sort+of+man+who+pays+no+attention+to+his+good+actions+but+is+tormented+by+his+bad+ones+this+is+the+type+that+most+often+writes+about+himself%22&pg=PA11#v=onepage
The Summing Up (1938)

“It is salutary to train oneself to be no more affected by censure than by praise…”

W. Somerset Maugham book The Summing Up

Source: The Summing Up (1938), p. 223

“The artist produces for the liberation of his soul. It is his nature to create as it is the nature of water to run down the hill.”

W. Somerset Maugham book The Summing Up

Source: The Summing Up (1938), p. 185

“You are not angry with people when you laugh at them. Humour teaches tolerance, and the humorist, with a smile and perhaps a sigh, is more likely to shrug his shoulders than to condemn.”

W. Somerset Maugham book The Summing Up

Source: The Summing Up (1938), p. 67

“…we learn resignation not by our own suffering, but by the suffering of others.”

W. Somerset Maugham book The Summing Up

Source: The Summing Up (1938), p. 64

“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. Failure makes people bitter and cruel.”

W. Somerset Maugham book The Summing Up

Source: The Summing Up (1938), p. 182

“I would sooner read a time-table or a catalogue than nothing at all. … They are much more entertaining than half the novels that are written.”

W. Somerset Maugham book The Summing Up

Source: The Summing Up (1938), p. 1

“I do not believe they are right who say that the defects of famous men should be ignored. I think it is better that we should know them. Then, though we are conscious of having faults as glaring as theirs, we can believe that that is no hindrance to our achieving also something of their virtues.”

W. Somerset Maugham book The Summing Up

Source: The Summing Up (1938), p. 71

“Tradition is a guide and not a jailer.”

W. Somerset Maugham book The Summing Up

Source: The Summing Up (1938), p. 223

“By the time I was twenty-four I had constructed a complete system of philosophy. It rested on two principles: The Relativity of Things and The Circumferentiality of Man. I have since discovered that the first was not a very original discovery. It may be that the other was profound, but though I have racked my brains I cannot for the life of me remember what it was.”

W. Somerset Maugham book The Summing Up

section 66
The Summing Up (1938)

“…the future will one day be the present and will seem as unimportant as the present does now.”

W. Somerset Maugham book The Summing Up

Source: The Summing Up (1938), p. 51

“Old age is ready to undertake tasks that youth shirked because they would take too long.”

W. Somerset Maugham book The Summing Up

Source: The Summing Up (1938), p. 290

“I'll give you my opinion of the human race in a nutshell… their heart's in the right place, but their head is a thoroughly inefficient organ.”

W. Somerset Maugham book The Summing Up

Source: The Summing Up (1938), p. 206

“Perfection is a trifle dull. It is not the least of life's ironies that this, which we all aim at, is better not quite achieved.”

W. Somerset Maugham book The Summing Up

Source: The Summing Up (1938), p. 297

“The great critic … must be a philosopher, for from philosophy he will learn serenity, impartiality, and the transitoriness of human things.”

W. Somerset Maugham book The Summing Up

Source: The Summing Up (1938), p. 223

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