It is not true that suffering ennobles the character; happiness does that sometimes, but suffering, for the most part, makes men petty and vindictive.

W. Somerset Maugham

More information about this quote

Topic

Suffering Learning from suffering Pointless suffering

Author

W. Somerset Maugham

Source

The Moon and Sixpence

Medium

Novel

Language

English

Time

1919 1910s 20th century

Occupation

Novelist Writer

From

United Kingdom Europe

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Maugham, William Somerset. The Moon and Sixpence. William Heinemann, 1919, ch. 17.

Current Citation

Maugham, William Somerset. The Moon and Sixpence. Vintage Classics, 2009, ch. 17.

Illustrated Quote

A quote by W. Somerset Maugham about suffering: “It is not true that suffering ennobles the character; happiness does…”
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A quote by W. Somerset Maugham about suffering: “It is not true that suffering ennobles the character; happiness does…”
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A quote by W. Somerset Maugham about suffering: “It is not true that suffering ennobles the character; happiness does…”
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Related Quotes

Below are one or more quotes that share at least one tag with the quote at the top of the page

Another quote from the 1910s

Railway termini... Are our gates to the glorious and the unknown. Through them we pass out into adventure and sunshine, to them, alas! we return.

E.M. Forster (Edward Morgan Forster)

Howards End

More information about this quote
Topic
Trains Travel

Author

E.M. Forster (Edward Morgan Forster)
Source
Howards End
Medium
Novel
Language
English
Time
1910 1910s 20th century
Authentication Score 3
Citation

Forster, E.M. Howards End. Edward Arnold, 1910, ch. 2.

Another quote about Suffering

Sorrow comes in great waves—no one can know that better than you—but it rolls over us, and though it may almost smother us it leaves us on the spot, and we know that if it is strong we are stronger, inasmuch as it passes and we remain. It wears us, uses us, but we wear it and use it in return; and it is blind, whereas we after a manner see.

Henry James

More information about this quote
Topic
Learning from suffering Suffering

Author

Henry James
Source
Letters of Henry James
Medium
Letter
Statement Type
Metaphor, analogy and simile
Language
English
Time
1883 1880s 19th century
Authentication Score 3
Original Citation

James, Henry. Letter to Grace Norton. 28 July 1883.

Current Citation

James, Henry. "July 28th [1883] To Grace Norton." The Complete Letters of Henry James, 1883-1884, edited by Michael Anesko and Greg W. Zacharias. Vol. 1, University of Nebraska Press, 2018.

Another quote from 1919

The race is not always to the swift, nor the battle to the strong; but that is the way to bet.

Hugh Keough

More information about this quote
Topic
Winners and losers

Author

Hugh Keough
Language
English
Time
1919 1910s 20th century
Authentication Score 3
Citation

Keough, Hugh. Quoted in Collier's. Feb. 1919.