Andre Maurois Quotes

"Growing old is no more than a bad habit which a busy man has no time to form"

"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."

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

"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."

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

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

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

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

"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."

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

"In literature, as in love, we are astonished at the choice made by other people"

"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."

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

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

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

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

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

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