Quote

Remember that it is nothing to do your duty, that is demanded of you and is no more meritorious than to wash your hands when they are dirty the only thing that counts is the love of duty when love and duty are one, then grace is in you and you will enjoy a happiness which passes all understanding.

W. Somerset Maugham

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

W. Somerset Maugham
Age: 90 †
Born: 1874
Born: January 1
Died: 1965
Died: January 1
Army Scout
Literary Critic
Novelist
Physician Writer
Playwright
Prosaist
Screenwriter
Writer
Paris
France
W. Somerset Maugham
Somerset Maugham
Thing
Duty
Love
Grace
Understanding
Meritorious
Happiness
Demanded
Enjoy
Wash
Hands
Counts
Remember
Passes
Nothing
Dirty

More quotes by W. Somerset Maugham

Image
The officers saluted as she passed and gravely bowed. They walked back across the courtyard and got into their chairs. She saw Waddington light a cigarette. A little smoke lost in the air, that was the life of a man.
W. Somerset Maugham
Image
I thought it was only in revealed religion that a mistranslation improved the sense.
W. Somerset Maugham
Image
I am sick of this way of life. The weariness and sadness of old age make it intolerable. I have walked with death in hand, and death's own hand is warmer than my own. I don't wish to live any longer.
W. Somerset Maugham
Image
In heaven, when the blessed use the telephone they will say what they have to say and not a word besides.
W. Somerset Maugham
Image
It has amazed me that the most incongruous traits should exist in the same person and, for all that, yield a plausible harmony.
W. Somerset Maugham
Image
The author always loads his dice, but he must never let the reader see that he has done so, and by the manipulation of his plot, he can engage the reader's attention so that he does not perceive the violence that has been done to him.
W. Somerset Maugham
Image
It is not true that suffering ennobles the character happiness does that sometimes, but suffering for the most part, makes men petty and vindictive.
W. Somerset Maugham
Image
An author spends months writing a book, and maybe puts his heart's blood into it, and then it lies about unread till the reader has nothing else in the world to do.
W. Somerset Maugham
Image
Tolerance is only another name for indifference.
W. Somerset Maugham
Image
A soul is a troublesome possession, and when man developed it he lost the Garden of Eden.
W. Somerset Maugham
Image
When you're eighteen your emotions are violent, but they're not durable.
W. Somerset Maugham
Image
No author can create a character out of nothing. He must have a model to give him a starting point but then his imagination goes to work, he builds him up, adding a trait here, a trait there, which his model did not possess.
W. Somerset Maugham
Image
A good rule for writers: do not explain overmuch.
W. Somerset Maugham
Image
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
Image
Excess on occasion is exhilarating. It prevents moderation from acquiring the deadening effect of a habit. It's a funny thing about life if you refuse to accept anything but the best, you very often get it. Like all weak men he laid an exaggerated stress on not changing one's mind.
W. Somerset Maugham
Image
Tradition is a guide and not a jailer.
W. Somerset Maugham
Image
It wasn't until late in life that I discovered how easy it is to say, 'I don't know.'
W. Somerset Maugham
Image
It is one of the defects of my character that I cannot altogether dislike anyone who makes me laugh.
W. Somerset Maugham
Image
It has been said that metaphysics is the finding of bad reasons for what we believe upon instinct.
W. Somerset Maugham
Image
An art is only great and significant if it is one that all may enjoy. The art of a clique is but a plaything.
W. Somerset Maugham