# The Razor's Edge - Author: [William Somerset Maugham](https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-somerset-maugham.md) - Quotes: 16 - Book page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-somerset-maugham/the-razors-edge ## Quotes > 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. > Almost all the people who have had most effect on me I seem to have met by chance. > 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. > Passion doesn't count the cost. ... Passion is destructive. > The sad Don Quixote of a worthless purpose. > Women are always glad to listen when you discourse upon love... > Religion is...a conspiracy of...priests to gain control over the people... > 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. > 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. > A god that can be understood is not a god. > '''In art honesty is not only the best but the only policy. > 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. > Things don't get any easier by putting them off. > Passion is destructive; if it does not destroy, it dies. > 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. > 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.