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Quotes from The Razor's Edge — W. Somerset Maugham

1874–1965 England

← All quotes by W. Somerset Maugham

16 quotes

In art honesty is not only the best but the only policy.

The Razor's Edge (1943)

A god that can be understood is not a god.

The Razor's Edge (1943)

Passion is destructive; if it does not destroy, it dies.

The Razor's Edge (1943)

Things don't get any easier by putting them off.

The Razor's Edge (1943)

Women are always glad to listen when you discourse upon love...

The Razor's Edge (1943)

Religion is...a conspiracy of...priests to gain control over the people...

The Razor's Edge (1943)

The sad Don Quixote of a worthless purpose.

The Razor's Edge (1943)

Nothing in the world is permanent, and we're foolish when we ask anything to last, but surely we're still more foolish not to take delight in it while we have it.

The Razor's Edge (1943)

Don't you know? Because American women expect to find in their husbands a perfection that English women only hope to find in their butlers.

The Razor's Edge (1943)

He found himself now in the agreeable situation of being able to do what was best for others and at the same time what was convenient to himself.

The Razor's Edge (1943)

Almost all the people who have had most effect on me I seem to have met by chance.

The Razor's Edge (1943)

There are men who are possessed by an urge so strong to do some particular thing that they can't help themselves, they've got to do it. They're prepared to sacrifice everything to satisfy their yearning.

The Razor's Edge (1943)

I thought I should be a fool to allow work to interfere with a delight in the passing moment that I might never enjoy again so fully.

The Razor's Edge (1943)

Passion doesn't count the cost. ... Passion is destructive.

The Razor's Edge (1943)

It may be that if I lead the life I've planned for myself it may affect others; the effect may be no greater than the ripple caused by a stone thrown in a pond, but one ripple causes another.

The Razor's Edge (1943)

He was the kind of man with whom one would have hesitated to pass a lonely evening, but with whom one might cheerfully have looked forward to spending six months.

The Razor's Edge (1943)

Attribution

Quotes and notes from Wikiquote: W. Somerset Maugham (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0.