André Maurois: Trending quotes

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André Maurois: 404 quotes4 likes

“It is a great joy to admire someone without reserve; love which is founded upon admiration of the mind as well as the body of the chosen person undoubtedly affords the keenest delight.”

André Maurois

Un Art de Vivre (The Art of Living) (1939), The Art of Loving

“In the misfortunes of our best friends, we always find something not unpleasing.”

André Maurois

Un Art de Vivre (The Art of Living) (1939), The Art of Friendship

“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. Except in the case of official persons, the traveler now lives for himself alone, and is no longer accountable to a community or a family clan. A foreign country is merely a spectacle; in it we no longer have the continual awareness of responsibility. All of us, from time to time, need a plunge into freedom and novelty, after which routine and discipline will seem delightful by contrast. Periods of rest, however, must be brief, but it is amazing to discover how a few days of travel can restore our mental freshness.”

André Maurois

Un Art de Vivre (The Art of Living) (1939), The Art of Working

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

André Maurois

A Time for Silence

“Human beings are lazy and it very often happens that one wearies of a new-born emotion for no valid reason unless there is some restraint to stimulate and stabilize it.”

André Maurois

Un Art de Vivre (The Art of Living) (1939), The Art of Friendship

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

André Maurois

Les silences du colonel Bramble (The Silence of Colonel Bramble)

“Passionate love produces distorted visions of actual people. Men who are too much in love expect such extraordinary happiness from marriage that they are frequently disappointed.”

André Maurois

Un Art de Vivre (The Art of Living) (1939), The Art of Marriage

“An exacting leader can always command more affection that one who is indifferent. The best way to impose severity is to have about one only those whose qualities one values. Any man ca easily endure criticism if his character and intelligence are clearly not called into question. To say quickly and forcefully what one feels strongly is the wise course. A sever reproach, if rapidly spoken, is less painful than hostile and sulky dissatisfaction. Subordinates must realize that if an order is not carried out they will suffer, but also that they will be exonerated if its execution leads to disaster. A true leader will always take full responsibility for his actions.”

André Maurois

Un Art de Vivre (The Art of Living) (1939), The Art of Leadership

“In every young government strength is worth more than ancestral wisdom, but no government can remain young. As it grows older there is more respect for mature men than for old men. The leader who has build his career upon a basis of youth, loses youth. Like the old wolf, he tries to hide his disgrace; he keeps himself fit and affects the fearlessness and excess of a young man; but sooner or later time will make him a senator, then a corpse.”

André Maurois

Un Art de Vivre (The Art of Living) (1939), The Art of Growing Old

“No one judges the mistakes of love - so long as they are accompanied by sincere repentance - no one judges them with more understanding than a woman at once irreproachable and sensitive.”

André Maurois

A Time for Silence

“He who allows himself to be devoured will be devoured, and he will die before he has done his work. The man who has an ardent passion for work asks of others only what will help him. He shirks no work that ca be of use and that he ca do well, but he flies from conversations, meetings, talkfests, studios full of phrase-makers. Goethe even advises such a man to ignore daily events if he cannot do anything about them. If we spend an hour every morning informing ourselves about distant wars and another hour lamenting their possible consequences, when we are neither ministers, generals, nor journalists, nor anything, we render no service to our country and we waste the most irrecoverable of our possessions: our own short life.”

André Maurois

Un Art de Vivre (The Art of Living) (1939), The Art of Working

“I like the War. It is only War that gives us a normal existence. What do you do in peace-time? You stay at home; you don't know what to do with your time; you argue with your parents, and your wife - if you have one. Everyone thinks you are an insufferable egotist - and so you are. The War comes; you only go home every five or six months. You are a hero, and, what women appreciate much more, you are a change. You know stories that have never been published. You've seen strange men and terrible things. Your father, instead of telling his friends that you are embittering the end of his life, introduces you to them as an oracle. These old men consult you on foreign politics. I you are married, your wife is prettier than ever; if you are not, all the girls lay siege to you.”

André Maurois

Les silences du colonel Bramble (The Silence of Colonel Bramble)

“Tell only what is necessary to the person one must tell, and only when it must be told.”

André Maurois

Un Art de Vivre (The Art of Living) (1939), The Art of Leadership

“There is no happiness without forgetfulness. I have never known a real man of action to be unhappy during action. How could he be? Like a child at play, he stops thinking of himself.”

André Maurois

Un Art de Vivre (The Art of Living) (1939), The Art of Happiness

“…It's much better to run the risk of a few kisses before marriage, for they at least leave some memories.”

André Maurois

"… or some regrets."
A Time for Silence

“The really great novel tends to be the exact negative of its author's life. "The characters crowd onto the page", writes Mauriac, "there to accomplish all those things which the personal destiny of the author has kept at bay.”

André Maurois

The Art of Writing

“The man who truly loves his work returns to it after the briefest rest with a curious kind of voluptuousness. When he is completely absorbed in his job, the end of work seems like the end of life.”

André Maurois

Un Art de Vivre (The Art of Living) (1939), The Art of Working

“Nothing is so discouraging to subordinates as a chief who hesitates. "Firmness," said Napoleon, "prevails in all things."”

André Maurois

Un Art de Vivre (The Art of Living) (1939), The Art of Leadership

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

André Maurois

Les silences du colonel Bramble (The Silence of Colonel Bramble)

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

André Maurois

Un Art de Vivre (The Art of Living) (1939), The Art of Loving