Andre Maurois's Quotes

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Business is a combination of war and sport.

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

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.

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

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.

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

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

Lost Illusion is the undisclosed title of every novel.

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.

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.

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