W. Somerset Maugham Quotes

Common sense is very uncommon.

It's called common sense, but it's not common. Most people don't have it.

Common sense (which, in truth, is very uncommon) is the best sense I know of: abide by it; it will counsel you best.

There is absolutely no common sense, it is common non-sense.

I say this often, THINK. There is something in life called common sense. Webster's says common sense is sound and prudent judgment based on a simple perception of the situation or facts. Perhaps this is why in 1776, Thomas Paine used these words as a title for the most famous pamphlet ever written.

... common sense is very rare.

Common sense is often underrated.

What is common sense? That which attracts the least opposition that which brings most agreeable and worthy results.

There are people who are so full of common sense that they haven't the slightest cranny left for their own sense.

To avoid the various foolish opinions to which mankind are prone, no superhuman genius is required. A few simple rules will keep you, not from all error, but from silly error.

Don't be afraid to trust your own common sense.

Generally, common sense is rare in the (higher) rank.

No Ghost of any common sense begins a conversation

We know you have a great mind and all, Mother, but you don’t have much sense.

Logic is one thing and commonsense another.

There is a chalk outline slowly being drawn around common sense and most people can't identify the victim.

Common sense is science exactly in so far as it fulfills the ideal of common sense; that is, sees facts as they are, or at any rate, without the distortion of prejudice, and reasons from them in accordance with the dictates of sound judgment. And science is simply common sense at its best, that is, rigidly accurate in observation, and merciless to fallacy in logic.

If the obstacles of bigotry and priestcraft can be surmounted, we may hope that common sense will suffice to do everything else.

Reason and reality are the only means to just laws; mindless wishes, if given sovereignty, become deadly masters.

The most uncommon form of intelligence is common sense.

Learning is, in too many cases, but a foil to common sense; a substitute for true knowledge.

Without common sense, all thine efforts are in vain.

I can put two and two together, you know. Do not think you are dealing with a man who has lost his grapes.

I agree that it's important to be of a virtuous nature, but I would also contend that if you had to choose between giving a man a noble disposition or teaching him to think clearly, you'd do better to teach him to think clearly. Too many problems in this world are caused by men with noble dispositions and clouded minds.

A vague uncritical idealism always lends itself to ridicule and too much of it might be a danger to mankind, leading it round in a futile wild-goose chase for imaginary ideals.