Of Human Bondage

W. Somerset Maugham, 1915

W. Somerset Maugham’s novel of Philip Carey, an orphan with a club foot brought up by his uncle, a country vicar, who looks for a purpose in life in Germany, as an art student in Paris and as a medical student in London.

Start reading122 chapters, about 261,000 words

Famous quotes

You know, there are two good things in life, freedom of thought and freedom of action.
Ch. 23In context
- Freedom
It is an illusion that youth is happy, an illusion of those who have lost it; but the young know they are wretched, for they are full of the truthless ideals which have been instilled into them, and each time they come in contact with the real they are bruised and wounded.
Chapter XXIXIn context
- Happiness
- Youth
Like all weak men he laid an exaggerated stress on not changing one’s mind.
Chapter XXXIXIn context
- Character
- Decisions
People ask you for criticism, but they only want praise.
Ch. 50In context
- Character
Money is like a sixth sense without which you cannot make a complete use of the other five.
Ch. 51In context
- Money
It is not wealth one asks for, but just enough to preserve one’s dignity, to work unhampered, to be generous, frank, and independent.
Ch. 51In context
- Money
It is cruel to discover one’s mediocrity only when it is too late.
Chapter LIIn context
- Failure
Follow your inclinations with due regard to the policeman round the corner.
Chapter LIIIIn context
- Advice
- Morality
When I read a book I seem to read it with my eyes only, but now and then I come across a passage, perhaps only a phrase, which has a meaning for me, and it becomes part of me.
Ch. 67In context
- Reading
It’s no good crying over spilt milk, because all the forces of the universe were bent on spilling it.
Chapter LXVIIIn context
- Advice
- Philosophy
But when all was said the important thing was to love rather than to be loved.
Ch. 70In context
- Love
There’s always one who loves and one who lets himself be loved.
Ch. 71In context
- Love
He had heard people speak contemptuously of money: he wondered if they had ever tried to do without it.
Chapter CXVIIn context
- Money

Famous quotes

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