Quotes from book
The Summing Up

The Summing Up

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.


W. Somerset Maugham photo
W. Somerset Maugham photo
W. Somerset Maugham photo
W. Somerset Maugham photo
W. Somerset Maugham photo

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

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

W. Somerset Maugham photo

“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.”

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)

W. Somerset Maugham photo
W. Somerset Maugham photo
W. Somerset Maugham photo
W. Somerset Maugham photo
W. Somerset Maugham photo
W. Somerset Maugham photo
W. Somerset Maugham photo
W. Somerset Maugham photo

“Tradition is a guide and not a jailer.”

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

W. Somerset Maugham photo
W. Somerset Maugham photo
W. Somerset Maugham photo
W. Somerset Maugham photo
W. Somerset Maugham photo
W. Somerset Maugham photo

Similar authors

W. Somerset Maugham photo
W. Somerset Maugham 158
British playwright, novelist, short story writer 1874–1965
Doris Lessing photo
Doris Lessing 94
British novelist, poet, playwright, librettist, biographer …
Sinclair Lewis photo
Sinclair Lewis 136
American novelist, short-story writer, and playwright
Rudyard Kipling photo
Rudyard Kipling 200
English short-story writer, poet, and novelist
Luigi Pirandello photo
Luigi Pirandello 7
Italian dramatist, novelist, short story writer, and poet, …
Samuel Beckett photo
Samuel Beckett 122
Irish novelist, playwright, and poet
Italo Calvino photo
Italo Calvino 44
Italian journalist and writer of short stories and novels
Elias Canetti photo
Elias Canetti 43
Bulgarian-born Swiss and British jewish modernist novelist,…
William Golding photo
William Golding 79
British novelist, poet, playwright and Nobel Prize for Lite…
Ivo Andrič photo
Ivo Andrič 16
novelist, short story writer