W. Somerset Maugham on Freedom vs. Comfort
on Friday, August 2, 2013W. Somerset Maugham Money Quotation saying The cost of freedom is vigilance, so loving comforts of wealth more than the freedom that makes them possible can be fatal to Freedom. W. Somerset Maugham said:
“If a nation values anything more than freedom, it will lose its freedom; and the irony of it is that if it is comfort or money that it values more, it will lose that too” — W. Somerset Maugham
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This quote from W. Somerset Maugham is a warning about the dangers of valuing comfort and material wealth over freedom. If a nation prioritizes these things above freedom and civil liberties, it is suggesting it will lose both its freedom and the very comfort/money it holds so dear.
The irony Maugham refers to is that in striving so single-mindedly for comfort and economic gain, a nation opens itself to the loss of freedom – and ultimately the loss of the comfort/money too, since free societies that respect individual rights tend to be most prosperous in the long run.
Overall it’s a message about the importance of balance and of not sacrificing more important principles like liberty in the pursuit of transient goals like comfort and wealth. Prioritizing freedom allows a nation to best achieve and maintain other goals too.
Birthday: January 25, 1874 – Death: December 16, 1965