“Agreeable men are those who are interested in everything; men who accomplish things, who finish their tasks, are those who, during a given period of time, interest themselves in one thing only. In America these men are said to possess "single-track minds"' their tenacity and their obsession are sometimes boring, but they succeed, by repeated attacks, in demolishing the obstacles that hinder their progress.”

— André Maurois

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

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André Maurois 202

French writer 1885–1967

Bhartrihari (570) Indian linguist, poet and writer

Nītiśataka 74; translated by B. Hale Wortham
Śatakatraya

“Those only deserve a monument who do not need one; that is, who have raised themselves a monument in the minds and memories of men.”

William Hazlitt (1778–1830) English writer

No. 388
Characteristics, in the manner of Rochefoucauld's Maxims (1823)

“Self-interest distinguishes most men at this time, with attendant weaknesses. Yet, in all countries, there are those who have outgrown these self-centred attitudes and there are many who are more interested in civic and the national good than in themselves. A few, a very few in relation to the mass of men, are internationally minded and preoccupied with the welfare of humanity, as a whole.”

Alice A. Bailey (1880–1949) esoteric, theosophist, writer

Source: Problems Of Humanity (1944), p. 13

“Single-minded monists, ruthless fanatics, men possessed by an all-embracing coherent vision do not know the doubts and agonies of those who cannot wholly blind themselves to reality.”

Isaiah Berlin (1909–1997) Russo-British Jewish social and political theorist, philosopher and historian of ideas

Five Essays on Liberty (2002), Introduction (1969)
Context: Those, no doubt, are in some way fortunate who have brought themselves, or have been brought by others, to obey some ultimate principle before the bar of which all problems can be brought. Single-minded monists, ruthless fanatics, men possessed by an all-embracing coherent vision do not know the doubts and agonies of those who cannot wholly blind themselves to reality.

“Only men who are not interested in women are interested in women's clothes. Men who like women never notice what they wear.”

Anatole France book Histoire contemporaine

Ce sont les hommes qui n'aiment pas les femmes qui s'intéressent à la toilette des femmes. Et les hommes qui aiment les femmes ne voient pas seulement comment elles sont habillées.
Histoire contemporaine: L'anneau d'améthyste (1899)