Andre Maurois Quotes

A man cannot free himself from the past more easily than he can from his own body.

The reading of a fine book is an uninterrupted dialogue in which the book speaks and our soul replies.

Everything that is in agreement with our personal desires seems true; everything that is not puts us in a rage.

A successful marriage is an edifice that must be rebuilt every day.

A marriage without conflicts is almost as inconceivable as a nation without crises.

We can talk frankly about our defects only to those who recognise our qualities.

If men could regard the events of their own lives with more open minds, they would frequently discover that they did not really desire the things they failed to obtain.

Old age is far more than white hair, wrinkles, the feeling that it is too late and the game finished, that the stage belongs to the rising generations. The true evil is not the weakening of the body, but the indifference of the soul.

Conversation would be vastly improved by the constant use of four simple words: I do not know.

Men fear silence as they fear solitude, because both give them a glimpse of the terror of life's nothingness.

You don't love a man for what he says, but love what he says because you love him.

Self-pity comes so naturally to all of us.

A friend loves you for your intelligence, a mistress for your charm, but your family's love is unreasoning; you were born into it and are of its flesh and blood. Nevertheless it can irritate you more than any group of people in the world.

An old man, having retired from active life, regains the gaity and irresponsibility of childhood. He is ready to play, he cannot run with his son, but he can totter with his grandson. Our first and last steps have the same rhythm.

In a discussion, the difficulty lies, not in being able to defend your opinion, but to know it.

He who wants to do everything will never do anything.

[...] marriage is one thing, and love is another...You need to have a solid canvas; nobody stops you to weave the arabesques.

People are what you make them. A scornful look turns into a complete fool a man of average intelligence. A contemptuous indifference turns into an enemy a woman who, well treated, might have been an angel.

The effectiveness of work increases according to geometric progression if there are no interruptions.

Men and women are not born inconstant: they are made so by their early amorous experiences.

I knew a man who had been virtually drowned and then revived. He said that his death had not been painful.

Information is not culture. In the mind of a truly educated person, facts are organized, and they make up a living world in the image of the world of reality.

The difficult part in an argument is not to defend one's opinion but rather to know it.

Modesty and unselfishness - these are the virtues which men praise - and pass by.

Sincerity is glass, discretion is diamond.

Experience is valuable only when it has brought suffering and when the suffering has left its mark upon both body and mind.

Advice is always a confession.

To be witty is not enough. One must possess sufficient wit to avoid having too much of it.

The first recipe for happiness is: avoid too lengthy meditation on the past.

We owe to the Middle Ages the two worst inventions of humanity - romantic love and gunpowder.

A great biography should, like the close of a great drama, leave behind it a feeling of serenity. We collect into a small bunch the flowers, the few flowers, which brought sweetness into a life, and present it as an offering to an accomplished destiny. It is the dying refrain of a completed song, the final verse of a finished poem.

We don't love a woman for what she says, we like what she says because we love her.

Lost Illusion is the undisclosed title of every novel.

If you create an act, you create a habit. If you create a habit, you create a character. If you create a character, you create a destiny.

Almost all great writers have as their motif, more or less disguised, the passage from childhood to maturity, the clash between the thrill of expectation and the disillusioning knowledge of truth. 'Lost Illusion' is the undisclosed title of every novel.

Without a family, man, alone in the world, trembles with the cold.

Above all things, never be afraid. The enemy who forces you to retreat is himself afraid of you at that very moment.

It is better to teach a few things perfectly than many things indifferently...

In literature as in love, we are astonished at what is chosen by others.

People are discontent; men are troubled; and the literature is excellent.

The really great novel tends to be the exact negative of its author's life.

If you create a character, you create a destiny.

All of us, from time to time, need a plunge into freedom and novelty, after which routine and discipline will seem delightful by contrast.

There are deserts in every life, and the desert must be depicted if we are to give a fair and complete idea of the country.

We appreciate frankness from those who like us. Frankness from others is called insolence.

Our minds have unbelievable power over our bodies.

A happy marriage is a long conversation which always seems too short.

The most important quality in a leader is that of being acknowledged as such. All leaders whose fitness is questioned are clearly lacking in force.