Loving-kindness is the better part of goodness. It lends grace to the sterner qualities of which this consists and makes it a little less difficult to practice those minor virtues of self-control and self-restraint, patience, discipline and tolerance, which are the passive and not very exhilarating elements of goodness.
Goodness is the only value that seems in this world of appearances to have any claim to be an end in itself. Virtue is in its own a reward.
I am ashamed to have reached so commonplace a conclusion. With my instinct for effect I should have liked to end my book with some startling and paradoxical announcement or with a cynicism that my readers would have recognized with a chuckle as characteristic. It seems I have little more to say than can be read in any copybook or heard from any pulpit. I have gone a long way round to discover what everyone knew already. W. Somerset Maugham
KINDNESS
slow down and REFLECT
on the MEANING and the MESSAGE of today’s quotation
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IN YOUR OWN WORDS… what is the main idea or theme that is expressed in the above quote?
“If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough.” (Albert Einstein)
PERSONALIZE….
Do you have any personal experiences or observations that relate to the meaning of this quote? If so, describe a specific example.
“There are many truths of which the full meaning cannot be realized until personal experience has brought it home.” (John Stuart Mill)
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ai Assistant
Interested in seeing what artificial intelligence (ai) has to say about the meaning of today’s quotation? Compare it to your own interpretation. You may be fascinated, or even possibly humbled.
“This is a beautifully layered reflection by W. Somerset Maugham, and it highlights something many people overlook: goodness alone can feel demanding—but loving-kindness makes it livable.
Maugham is drawing a subtle distinction:
- Goodness includes discipline, restraint, patience, and self-control—qualities that are admirable but often difficult and, as he says, “not very exhilarating.”
- Loving-kindness, however, softens these कठोर edges. It adds warmth, compassion, and humanity, making goodness feel less like obligation and more like a natural expression of who we are.
In other words, without kindness, goodness can feel rigid or even burdensome. But with kindness, it becomes graceful and approachable.
His second point is just as profound:
“Virtue is in its own a reward.”
He suggests that goodness doesn’t need external validation—no praise, no recognition, no outcome. The act itself is complete. This echoes an idea found across philosophy and spirituality: that living rightly is its own fulfillment.
Taken together, the message is this:
- Strive to be good, yes—but don’t forget to be kind.
- Because kindness is what makes goodness not only admirable, but sustainable.” (chatGPT, 06/02/26)
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