Top 117 Quotes & Sayings by Andre Maurois - Page 2

Style is the outcome of constraint.

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

Either the soul is immortal and we shall not die, or it perishes with the flesh and we shall not know that we are dead. Live, then, as if you were eternal.

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.

One has very little influence upon one's children. Their characters are what they are and one can do nothing to change them.

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

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

An unsatisfied woman requires luxury, but a woman who is in love with a man will lie on a board.

The longer the road to love, the keener is the pleasure...

A great man's manias must be respected, because the time required to combat them is too precious to waste.

For intelligent people, action often means escape from thought, but it is a reasonable and a wise escape.

Live as if you were eternal.

Happiness flourishes where there is happiness...

To desire to be perpetually in the society of a pretty woman until the end of one's days, is as if, because one likes good wine, one wished always to have one's mouth full of it.

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.

Writing is a difficult trade which must be learned slowly by reading great authors; by trying at the outset to imitate them; by daring then to be original; by destroying one's first productions.

The clear and simple words of common usage are always better than those of erudition. The jargon of the philosophers not seldom conceals an absence of thought.

Learning is nothing without cultivated manners, but when the two are combined in a woman, you have one of the most exquisite products of civilization.

He who has found a good wife has found great happiness, but a quarrelsome woman is like a roof that lets in the rain.

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.

Genius consists of equal parts of natural aptitude and hard work.

He who wants to do everything will never do anything.

To reason with poorly chosen words is like using a pair of scales with inaccurate weights.

Love born of anxiety resembles a thorn shaped so that efforts to pull it out of one's flesh merely cause it to penetrate more deeply therein.

Marriage is not something that can be accomplished all at once; it has to be constantly reaccomplished. A couple must never indulge in idle tranquility with the remark: "The game is won; let's relax." The game is never won. The chances of life are such that anything is possible. Remember what the dangers are for both sexes in middle age. A successful marriage is an edifice that must be rebuilt every day.

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

Inspiration in matters of taste will not come twice.

The need to express oneself in writing springs from a mal-adjustment to life, or from an inner conflict which the adolescent (or the grown man) cannot resolve in action. Those to whom action comes as easily as breathing rarely feel the need to break loose from the real, to rise above, and describe it... I do not mean that it is enough to be maladjusted to become a great writer, but writing is, for some, a method of resolving a conflict, provided they have the necessary talent.

If you create a character, you create a destiny.

It is not events and the things one sees and enjoys that produce happiness, but a state of mind which can endow events with its own quality, and we must hope for the duration of this state rather than the recurrence of pleasurable events.

Self-pity comes so naturally to all of us.

Old age diminishes our strength; it takes away our pleasures one after the other; it withers the soul as well as the body; it renders adventure and friendship difficult; and finally it is shadowed by thoughts of death.

A great writer has a high respect for values. His essential function is to raise life to the dignity of thought, and this he does by giving it a shape.

Housekeeping in common is for women the acid test.

It is restful to leave one's home; not because traveling does not entail varied and difficult daily actions, but because it removes our responsibilities.

To feminine eyes a man's prestige, or his fame, envelops him in a luminous haze which obscures his faults. The triumphs of an aviator, an actor, a football player, an orator are often responsible for the beginning of a love affair.

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

When you become used to never being alone, you may consider yourself Americanised

What men call friendship is only social intercourse, an exchange of favours and good offices; it comes down to a commercial dealing in which self-esteem always expects to profit.

Happiness is never there to stay [...] Happiness is merely a respite offered by inquietude.

The minds of different generations are as impenetrable one by the other as are the monads of Leibniz.

Medicine is a very old joke, but it still goes on.

The reputation of a Don Juan gives to a man the most dangerous power. Wise virgins resist it, but foolish virgins frequently yield to the desire to take a celebrated lover from a rival - even from a friend. This emotion is a complex one, mad up of vanity, respect for another woman's taste, and the need to establish self-assurance by winning a difficult victory. Don Juan chose his first mistresses; later he was chosen.

Woman's great strength lies in being late or absent. Presence immediately reveals the weak points of our beloved; when she is absent she become one of the sylph-like figures of our adolescence whom we endowed with perfection.

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

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

It is often said that in prosperity we have many friends, but that we are usually neglected when things go badly. I disagree. Not only do malicious people flock about us in order to witness our ruin, but other unfortunates as well, who have been kept away by our happiness, and now feel close to us on account of our troubles.

Marriage makes a man more vulnerable by doubling the expanse of sail exposed to the tempests of social life.

Only passions can raise a man above the level of the animal.

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.

We don't go to school to learn, but to be soaked in the prejudices of our class, without which we should be useless and unhappy.

Artificial inflation of stocks must be considered a crime as serious as counterfeiting, which it closely resembles.

Two human beings anchored to one another are like two ships shaken by waves; their carcases collide with one another and creak.

A great statesman, like a good housekeeper, knows that cleaning has to be done every morning.

The art of growing old is the art of being regarded by the oncoming generations as a support and not as a stumbling-block...

The need to express one's self in writing springs from a maladjustment of life, or from an inner conflict which the adolescent (or the grown man) cannot resolve in action.

If, in New York, you arrive late for an appointment, say, "I took a taxi".