Top 117 Quotes & Sayings by Andre Maurois

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

Style is the hallmark of a temperament stamped upon the material at hand.

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

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

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.

Memory is a great artist. For every man and for every woman it makes the recollection of his or her life a work of art and an unfaithful record.

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

Lost Illusion is the undisclosed title of every novel.

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

Business is a combination of war and sport.

Smile, for everyone lacks self-confidence and more than any other one thing a smile reassures them.

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

There are certain persons for whom pure Truth is a poison.

No one can be profoundly original who does not avoid eccentricity.

An artist must be a reactionary. He has to stand out against the tenor of the age and not go flopping along.

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.

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

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

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

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

Growing old is no more than a bad habit which a busy person has no time to form.

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

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.

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

Self-pity comes so naturally to all of us. The most solid happiness can be shaken by the compassion of a fool.

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

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

If you value a man's regard, strive with him. As to liking, you like your newspaper - and despise it.

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

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.

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.

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

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

A gentleman is never in a hurry.

Few are they who have never had a chance to achieve happiness- and fewer those who have taken that chance.

Sincerity is glass, discretion is diamond.

Every ten years you should delete from your mind a few ideas that your experience has proven to be false.

We console ourselves with several friends for not having found one real one.

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

The greedy search for money or success will almost always lead men into unhappiness. Why? Because that kind of life makes them depend upon things outside themselves.

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

A true woman loves a strong man because she knows his weaknesses. She protects as much as she is protected.

Art is an effort to create, beside the real world, a more humane world.

Advice is always a confession.

Our minds have unbelievable power over our bodies.

Time is a factor in all action. An imperfect scheme put into action at the proper time is better than a perfect one accomplished too late.

British conversation is like a game of cricket or a boxing match; personal allusions are forbidden like hitting below the belt, and anyone who loses his temper is disqualified.

Novelty, the most potent of all attractions, is also the most perishable.

Like a bird, when his cage is opened, stays on his perch, dazzled by freedom, the postponed traveler does not see that his cage, with its bars of anxiety, it is open.

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

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

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

Among the idle rich, boredom is one of the most common causes of unhappiness. People who have difficulty in earning their living may suffer greatly, but they are not bored. Wealthy men and women become bored when they depend upon the theater for their enjoyment instead of making their own lives interesting.

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.

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

There are very few really brilliant men who have not had at least one madman among their ancestors.

Often we allow ourselves to be upset by small things we should despise and forget. We lose many irreplaceable hours brooding over grievances that, in a year's time, will be forgotten by us and by everybody. No, let us devote our life to worthwhile actions and feelings, to great thoughts, real affections and enduring undertakings.

Stupidity is a factor to be reckoned with in human affairs. The true leader always expects to encounter it, and prepares to endure it patiently so long as it is normal stupidity. He knows that his ideas will be distorted, his orders carelessly executed; and that there will be jealousy among his assistants. He takes these inevitable phenomena into account, and instead of attempting to find men without faults, who are non-existent, he tries to make use of the best men at his disposal - as they are, and not as they ought to be.

The art of reading is in great part that of acquiring a better understanding of life from one's encounter with it in a book.