“Often the best way to overcome desire is to satisfy it.”
More from Somerset Maugham on Wisdom
“I respect him. He has brains and character; and that, I may tell you, is a very unusual combination.”
“A bird in the hand was worth two in the bush, he told her, to which she retorted that a proverb was the last refuge of the mentally destitute.”
“Dinner a time when . . . one should eat wisely but not too well and talk well but not too wisely.”
“Imagination grows by exercise and contrary to common belief is more powerful in the mature than in the young.”
Others on Wisdom
Sun Tzu
30 quotes“Do not swallow bait offered by the enemy. Do not interfere with an army that is returning home.”
Dalai Lama
22 quotes“Compassion is the radicalism of our time.”
Cervantes
20 quotes“A closed mouth catches no flies.”
Aesop
19 quotes“Little by little does the trick.”
Confucius
19 quotes“The gem cannot be polished without friction nor man perfected without trials.”
Ben Franklin
18 quotes“Be slow in choosing a friend, slower in changing.”
Napoleon
16 quotes“Ability is of little account without opportunity.”
Cicero
15 quotes“Great is the power of habit. It teaches us to bear fatigue and to despise wounds and pain.”
George Washington
14 quotes“Let your Discourse with Men of Business be Short and Comprehensive.”
Rudyard Kipling
14 quotes“I keep six honest serving men. (They taught me all I know) Their names are What and Why and When and How and Where and...”
Khalil Gibran
14 quotes“Perplexity is the beginning of knowledge.”
George R.R. Martin
14 quotes“This was how an enemy should be dealt with: with a dagger, not a declaration.”