# Quote — William Somerset Maugham, The Summing Up

> By the time I was twenty-four I had constructed a complete system of philosophy. It rested on two principles: The Relativity of Things and The Circumferentiality of Man. I have since discovered that the first was not a very original discovery. It may be that the other was profound, but though I have racked my brains I cannot for the life of me remember what it was.

- Author: [William Somerset Maugham](https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-somerset-maugham.md)
- Book: [The Summing Up](https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-somerset-maugham/the-summing-up.md)
- Source: [Wikiquote](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/W._Somerset_Maugham#The_Summing_Up_(1938)) ([CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/))
- Quote page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-somerset-maugham/the-summing-up/by-the-time

## More from this book

> Old age is ready to undertake tasks that youth shirked because they would take too long.

p. 290 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-somerset-maugham/the-summing-up/old-age-is-ready.md)

> We are not the same persons this year as last ; nor are those we love. It is a happy chance if we, changing, continue to love a changed person.

p. 306 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-somerset-maugham/the-summing-up/we-are-not.md)

> I have been forced to conclude from this that we know our friends by their defects rather than by their merits.

p. 214 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-somerset-maugham/the-summing-up/i-have-been.md)