Quotes from The Razor's Edge

“You're beginning to dislike me, aren't you? Well, dislike me. It doesn't make any difference to me now.”
― W. Somerset Maugham, quote from The Razor's Edge

“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. If change is of the essence of existence one would have thought it only sensible to make it the premise of our philosophy.”
― W. Somerset Maugham, quote from The Razor's Edge

“For men and women are not only themselves; they are also the region in which they are born, the city apartment or farm in which they learnt to walk, the games they played as children, the old wives tales they overheard, the food they ate, the schools they attended, the sports they followed, the poets they read, and the God they believed in. It is all these things that have made them what they are, and these are the things that you can't come to know by hearsay...”
― W. Somerset Maugham, quote from The Razor's Edge

“The fact that a great many people believe something is no guarantee of its truth.”
― W. Somerset Maugham, quote from The Razor's Edge

“Almost all the people who’ve had the most effect on me I seem to have met by chance, yet looking back it seems as though I couldn’t but have met them.”
― W. Somerset Maugham, quote from The Razor's Edge

“Its a toss-up when you decide to leave the beaten track. Many are called, few are chosen.”
― W. Somerset Maugham, quote from The Razor's Edge

“Well, you know when people are no good at anything else they become writers.”
― W. Somerset Maugham, quote from The Razor's Edge

“I don’t think I shall ever find peace till I make up my mind about things,’ he said gravely. He hesitated. ‘It’s very difficult to put into words. The moment you try you feel embarrassed. You say to yourself: “Who am I that I should bother myself about this, that, and the other? Perhaps it’s only because I’m a conceited prig. Wouldn’t it be better to follow the beaten track and let what’s coming to you come?” And then you think of a fellow who an hour before was full of life and fun,and he’s lying dead; it’s all so cruel and meaningless. It’s hard not to ask yourself what life is all about and whether there’s any sense to it or whether it’s all a tragic blunder of blind fate.”
― W. Somerset Maugham, quote from The Razor's Edge

“You see, money to you means freedom; to me it means bondage.”
― W. Somerset Maugham, quote from The Razor's Edge

“It is very difficult to know people and I don't think one can ever really know any but one's own countrymen. For men and women are not only themselves; they are also the region in which they are born, the city apartment or the farm in which they learnt to walk, the games they played as children, the old wives' tales they overheard, the food they ate, the schools they attended, the sports they followed, the poets they read, and the God they believed in. It is all these things that have made them what they are, and these are the things that you can't come to know by hearsay, you can only know them if you have lived them.”
― W. Somerset Maugham, quote from The Razor's Edge

“You know, when one's in love,' I said, 'and things go all wrong, one's terribly unhappy and one thinks one won't ever get over it. But you'll be astounded to learn what the sea will do.'

What do you mean?' she smiled.

Well, love isn't a good sailor and it languishes on a sea voyage. You'll be surprised when you have the Atlantic between you and Larry to find how slight the pang is that before you sailed seemed intolerable.”
― W. Somerset Maugham, quote from The Razor's Edge

“I wish I could make you see how much fuller the life I offer you is than anything you have a conception of. I wish I could make you see how exciting the life of the spirit is and how rich in experience. It's illimitable. It's such a happy life. There's only one thing like it, when you're up in a plane by yourself, high, high, and only infinity surrounds you. You're intoxicated by the boundless space.”
― W. Somerset Maugham, quote from The Razor's Edge

“When you're eighteen your emotions are violent, but they're not durable.”
― W. Somerset Maugham, quote from The Razor's Edge

“American women expect to find in their husbands a perfection that English women only hope to find in their butlers.”
― W. Somerset Maugham, quote from The Razor's Edge

“I happen to think we’ve set our ideal on the wrong objects; I happen to think that the greatest ideal man can set before himself is self-perfection.”
― W. Somerset Maugham, quote from The Razor's Edge

“The common idea that success spoils people by making them vain, egotistical 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, quote from The Razor's Edge

“We Americans... like change. It is at once our weakness and our strength.”
― W. Somerset Maugham, quote from The Razor's Edge

“In business sharp practice sometimes succeeds, but in art honesty is not only the best but the only policy.”
― W. Somerset Maugham, quote from The Razor's Edge

“A mother only does her children harm if she makes them the only concern of her life.”
― W. Somerset Maugham, quote from The Razor's Edge

“Art is triumphant when it can use convention as an instrument of its own purpose.”
― W. Somerset Maugham, quote from The Razor's Edge

“I suppose it was the end of the world for her when her husband and her baby were killed. I suppose she didn't care what became of her and flung herself into the horrible degradation of drink and promiscuous copulation to get even with life that had treated her so cruelly. She'd lived in heaven and when she lost it she couldn't put up with the common earth of common men, but in despair plunged headlong into hell. I can imagine that if she couldn't drink the nectar of the gods any more she thought she might as well drink bathroom gin.'

That's the sort of thing you say in novels. It's nonsense and you know it's nonsense. Sophie wallows in the gutter because she likes it. Other women have lost their husbands and children. It wasn't that that made her evil. Evil doesn't spring from good. The evil was there always. When that motor accident broke her defences it set her free to be herself. Don't waste your pity on her, she's now what at heart she always was.”
― W. Somerset Maugham, quote from The Razor's Edge

“You know, the Philistines have long since discarded the rack and stake as a means of suppressing the opinions they feared: they've discovered a much more deadly weapon of destruction -- the wisecrack.”
― W. Somerset Maugham, quote from The Razor's Edge

“Unless love is passion, it's not love, but something else; and passion thrives not on satisfaction, but on impediment.”
― W. Somerset Maugham, quote from The Razor's Edge

“There are psychologists who think that consciousness accompanies brain processes and is determined by them but doesn't itself exert any influence on them. Something like the reflection of a tree in water; it couldn't exist without the tree, but it doesn't in any way affect he tree. I think it's all stuff and nonsense to say that there can be love without passion; when people say love can endure after passion is dead they're talking of something else, affection, kindliness, community of taste and interest, and habit . . . Of course there can be desire without love. Desire isn't passion. Desire is the natural consequence of the sexual instinct . . . That's why women are foolish to make a song and dance if their husbands have an occasional flutter when the time and place are propitious . . . what is sauce for the gander is sauce for the goose . . . Unless love is passion, it's not love, but something else; and passion thrives not on satisfaction but impediment . . . When passion seizes the heart it invents reasons that seem not only plausible but conclusive to prove that the world is well lost for love. It convinces you that honor is well sacrificed and that shame is a cheap price to pay. Passion is destructive . . . and if it doesn't destroy it dies. It may be then that one is faced with the desolation of knowing that one has wasted the years of one's life, that one's brought disgrace upon oneself, endured the frightful pang of jealousy, swallowed every bitter mortification, that one's expended all one's tenderness, poured out all the riches of one's soul on a poor drab, a fool, a peg on which one hung one's dreams, who wasn't worth a stick of chewing gum.”
― W. Somerset Maugham, quote from The Razor's Edge

“I only wanted to suggest to you that self-sacrifice is a passion so overwhelming that beside it even lust and hunger are trifling.”
― W. Somerset Maugham, quote from The Razor's Edge

“It's a long, arduous road he's starting to travel, but it may be that at the end of it he'll find what's he's seeking.”
― W. Somerset Maugham, quote from The Razor's Edge

“I did not hesitate to put the question that came to the tip of my tongue. After all, if you want to know something the best way is to ask.”
― W. Somerset Maugham, quote from The Razor's Edge

About the author

Popular quotes

“You see when he forgot his Self his mother took care of his Self, and loved and praised his Self. Our own praises poison our Selves, and puff and swell them up, till they lose all shape and beauty, and become like great toadstools. But the praises of father or mother do our Selves good, and comfort them and make them beautiful. They never do them any harm. If they do any harm, it comes of our mixing some of our own praises with them, and that turns them nasty and slimy and poisonous.”
― George MacDonald, quote from At the Back of the North Wind

“No hagas juicios en tres dimensiones de lo que sólo puedes ver en la pantalla de un televisor.”
― Richard K. Morgan, quote from Market Forces

“Mae, he made me go out for a run," Jamie called out. "Tell him I don't run!"
"Jamie and I are lilies of the field. We toil not, neither do we jog," Mae informed Nick.”
― Sarah Rees Brennan, quote from The Demon's Covenant

“There are times to stay put, and what you want will come to you, and there are times to go out into the world and find such a thing for yourself.”
― Lemony Snicket, quote from Horseradish

“He (LBJ) played on their fears as he played on their hopes.”
― Robert A. Caro, quote from Means of Ascent

Interesting books

About BookQuoters

BookQuoters is a community of passionate readers who enjoy sharing the most meaningful, memorable and interesting quotes from great books. As the world communicates more and more via texts, memes and sound bytes, short but profound quotes from books have become more relevant and important. For some of us a quote becomes a mantra, a goal or a philosophy by which we live. For all of us, quotes are a great way to remember a book and to carry with us the author’s best ideas.

We thoughtfully gather quotes from our favorite books, both classic and current, and choose the ones that are most thought-provoking. Each quote represents a book that is interesting, well written and has potential to enhance the reader’s life. We also accept submissions from our visitors and will select the quotes we feel are most appealing to the BookQuoters community.

Founded in 2023, BookQuoters has quickly become a large and vibrant community of people who share an affinity for books. Books are seen by some as a throwback to a previous world; conversely, gleaning the main ideas of a book via a quote or a quick summary is typical of the Information Age but is a habit disdained by some diehard readers. We feel that we have the best of both worlds at BookQuoters; we read books cover-to-cover but offer you some of the highlights. We hope you’ll join us.