Quotable Quotes: William Somerset Maugham
by Miki Saxon
The world of William Somerset Maugham saw extraordinary changes between 1874 and 1965. Perhaps that’s why the first quote is applicable to technology he could never have imagined, while people, of course, haven’t really changed.
If Maugham were alive today would he tweet, blog or text? If so, I’m sure he would follow his own advice, “It is unsafe to take your reader for more of a fool than he is.”
He also offers up the best take on politics and religion that I’ve heard, “The most useful thing about a principle is that it can always be sacrificed to expediency.”
Maugham’s people insights are also as viable today as they were when he said them.
His belief that “people ask for criticism, but they only want praise” resonates these days as it never has before, but it’s his advice on the subject that is worth absorbing, “It is salutary to train oneself to be no more affected by censure than by praise.”
Managers who hire with the target of being the dumbest person in the room know the truth of this thought, “Only a mediocre person is always at his best.”
Hiring to be the smartest means hiring weak and opens you to a common problem that Maugham describes pithily, “Like all weak men he laid an exaggerated stress on not changing one’s mind.”
That mindset has prevailed since time immemorial proving the truth of Maugham’s opinion, “Men have an extraordinarily erroneous opinion of their position in nature; and the error is ineradicable.”
You can avoid joining this majority by learning a simple truth earlier than Maugham did, “It wasn’t until late in life that I discovered how easy it is to say “I don’t know.””
The other benefit to learning to say “I don’t know” is found in this final quote, “You can do anything in this world if you are prepared to take the consequences.”
Image credit: Wikimedia Commons
