Andre Maurois Quotes


"Men and women are not born inconstant: they are made so by their early amorous experiences."
- Andre Maurois
(Related: Men, Women)

"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."
- Andre Maurois
(Related: Art, Life, Work, Artist, Man, Memory, Woman)

"In literature as in love, we are astonished at what is chosen by others."
- Andre Maurois
(Related: Love, Literature)

"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."
- Andre Maurois
(Related: Character, Habit, Destiny)

"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."
- Andre Maurois
(Related: Men, Desire, Events, Open)

"Growing old is no more than a bad habit which a busy person has no time to form."
- Andre Maurois
(Related: Time, Habit, Old)

"Conversation would be vastly improved by the constant use of four simple words: I do not know."
- Andre Maurois
(Related: Conversation)

"Business is a combination of war and sport."
- Andre Maurois
(Related: Business, War)

"An artist must be a reactionary. He has to stand out against the tenor of the age and not go flopping along."
- Andre Maurois
(Related: Age, Artist)

"A successful marriage is an edifice that must be rebuilt every day."
- Andre Maurois
(Related: Marriage, Successful, Day)

"A marriage without conflicts is almost as inconceivable as a nation without crises."
- Andre Maurois
(Related: Marriage, Nation)

"A happy marriage is a long conversation which always seems too short."
- Andre Maurois
(Related: Marriage, Conversation)

"Lost Illusion is the undisclosed title of every novel."
- Andre Maurois
(Related: Illusion)

"The effectiveness of work increases according to geometric progression if there are no interruptions."
- Andre Maurois
(Related: Work)

"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."
- Andre Maurois
(Related: Fitness, Quality, Leader, Being, Force, Leaders)

"We owe to the Middle Ages the two worst inventions of humanity - romantic love and gunpowder."
- Andre Maurois
(Related: Love, Humanity, Inventions, Romantic)

"We appreciate frankness from those who like us. Frankness from others is called insolence."
- Andre Maurois
(Related: Frankness)

"To be witty is not enough. One must possess sufficient wit to avoid having too much of it."
- Andre Maurois
(Related: Wit, Witty)

"The really great novel tends to be the exact negative of its author's life."
- Andre Maurois
(Related: Life, Negative)

"Without a family, man, alone in the world, trembles with the cold."
- Andre Maurois
(Related: Family, Man, World)

"The first recipe for happiness is: Avoid too lengthy meditation on the past."
- Andre Maurois
(Related: Happiness, First, Meditation, Past)

"Style is the hallmark of a temperament stamped upon the material at hand."
- Andre Maurois
(Related: Style, Temperament)

"Smile, for everyone lacks self-confidence and more than any other one thing a smile reassures them."
- Andre Maurois
(Related: Self, Smile)

"Self-pity comes so naturally to all of us. The most solid happiness can be shaken by the compassion of a fool."
- Andre Maurois
(Related: Happiness, Compassion, Fool, Self)

"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."
- Andre Maurois
(Related: Intelligence, People, Enemy, Fool, Indifference, Man, Woman)

"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."
- Andre Maurois
(Related: Age, Soul, Body, Evil, Feeling, Generations, Hair, Indifference, Old)

"No one can be profoundly original who does not avoid eccentricity."
- Andre Maurois
(Related: Eccentricity)

"Modesty and unselfishness - these are the virtues which men praise - and pass by."
- Andre Maurois
(Related: Men, Modesty, Praise)

"The difficult part in an argument is not to defend one's opinion but rather to know it."
- Andre Maurois
(Related: Argument, Opinion)

"There are certain persons for whom pure Truth is a poison."
- Andre Maurois
(Related: Truth, Poison)