110+ Andre Maurois Quotes On Education, Friendship And Fiction

Andre Maurois was a French writer, biographer, and essayist. He was born in Elbeuf, France in 1885 and died in 1967. He wrote biographies of famous figures such as Lord Byron, Percy Bysshe Shelley, and Voltaire. Following is our collection on famous quotes by Andre Maurois on education, friendship, life.

Top 10 Andre Maurois Quotes

1. We owe to the Middle Ages the two worst inventions of humanity - romantic love and gunpowder.
2. Without a family, man, alone in the world, trembles with the cold.
3. The first recipe for happiness is: avoid too lengthy meditation on the past.
4. We can talk frankly about our defects only to those who recognise our qualities.
5. A marriage without conflicts is almost as inconceivable as a nation without crises.
6. A happy marriage is a long conversation which always seems too short.
7. Conversation would be vastly improved by the constant use of four simple words: I do not know.
8. The difficult part in an argument is not to defend one's opinion, but rather to know it.
9. A successful marriage is an edifice that must be rebuilt every day.
10. Men fear silence as they fear solitude, because both give them a glimpse of the terror of life's nothingness.

Andre Maurois Image Quotes

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

Andre Maurois Short Quotes

• Business is a combination of war and sport.
• If, in New York, you arrive late for an appointment, say, "I took a taxi".
• Smile, for everyone lacks self-confidence and more than any other one thing a smile reassures them.
• There are certain persons for whom pure Truth is a poison.
• No one can be profoundly original who does not avoid eccentricity.
• Self-pity comes so naturally to all of us.
• Sincerity is glass, discretion is diamond.
• Men and women are not born inconstant: they are made so by their early amorous experiences.
• Modesty and unselfishness - these are the virtues which men praise - and pass by.
• Style is the hallmark of a temperament stamped upon the material at hand.

Andre Maurois Quotes About Life

An old man, having retired from active life, regains the gaity and irresponsibility of childhood. He is ready to play, he cannot run with his son, but he can totter with his grandson. Our first and last steps have the same rhythm. — Andre Maurois

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

Marriage makes a man more vulnerable by doubling the expanse of sail exposed to the tempests of social life. — Andre Maurois

A great writer has a high respect for values. His essential function is to raise life to the dignity of thought, and this he does by giving it a shape. — Andre Maurois

The need to express one's self in writing springs from a maladjustment of life, or from an inner conflict which the adolescent (or the grown man) cannot resolve in action. — Andre Maurois

The art of reading is in great part that of acquiring a better understanding of life from one's encounter with it in a book. — Andre Maurois

The greedy search for money or success will almost always lead men into unhappiness. Why? Because that kind of life makes them depend upon things outside themselves. — Andre Maurois

There are deserts in every life, and the desert must be depicted if we are to give a fair and complete idea of the country. — Andre Maurois

Live as if you were eternal. — Andre Maurois

Andre Maurois Quotes About Love

A true woman loves a strong man because she knows his weaknesses. She protects as much as she is protected. — Andre Maurois

A friend loves you for your intelligence, a mistress for your charm, but your family's love is unreasoning; you were born into it and are of its flesh and blood. Nevertheless it can irritate you more than any group of people in the world. — Andre Maurois

A mixture of admiration and pity is one of the surest recipes for affection. — Andre Maurois

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

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

In literature, as in love, we are astonished at the choice made by other people. — Andre Maurois

You don't love a man for what he says, but love what he says because you love him. — Andre Maurois

We don't love a woman for what she says, we like what she says because we love her. — Andre Maurois

To feminine eyes a man's prestige, or his fame, envelops him in a luminous haze which obscures his faults. The triumphs of an aviator, an actor, a football player, an orator are often responsible for the beginning of a love affair. — Andre Maurois

An unsatisfied woman requires luxury, but a woman who is in love with a man will lie on a board. — Andre Maurois

Andre Maurois Quotes About Habit

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

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

Growing old is no more than a bad habit which a busy man has no time to form. — Andre Maurois

Andre Maurois Famous Quotes And Sayings

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

Often we allow ourselves to be upset by small things we should despise and forget. We lose many irreplaceable hours brooding over grievances that, in a year's time, will be forgotten by us and by everybody. No, let us devote our life to worthwhile actions and feelings, to great thoughts, real affections and enduring undertakings. — Andre Maurois

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

Like a bird, when his cage is opened, stays on his perch, dazzled by freedom, the postponed traveler does not see that his cage, with its bars of anxiety, it is open. — Andre Maurois

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

Above all things, never be afraid. The enemy who forces you to retreat is himself afraid of you at that very moment. — Andre Maurois

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

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

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

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

Learning is nothing without cultivated manners, but when the two are combined in a woman, you have one of the most exquisite products of civilization. — Andre Maurois

British conversation is like a game of cricket or a boxing match; personal allusions are forbidden like hitting below the belt, and anyone who loses his temper is disqualified. — Andre Maurois

To desire to be perpetually in the society of a pretty woman until the end of one's days, is as if, because one likes good wine, one wished always to have one's mouth full of it. — Andre Maurois

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. — Andre Maurois

Among the idle rich, boredom is one of the most common causes of unhappiness. People who have difficulty in earning their living may suffer greatly, but they are not bored. Wealthy men and women become bored when they depend upon the theater for their enjoyment instead of making their own lives interesting. — Andre Maurois

We console ourselves with several friends for not having found one real one. — Andre Maurois

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

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

Writing is a difficult trade which must be learned slowly by reading great authors; by trying at the outset to imitate them; by daring then to be original; by destroying one's first productions. — Andre Maurois

Information is not culture. In the mind of a truly educated person, facts are organized, and they make up a living world in the image of the world of reality. — Andre Maurois

Happiness is never there to stay [...] Happiness is merely a respite offered by inquietude. — Andre Maurois

A great man's manias must be respected, because the time required to combat them is too precious to waste. — Andre Maurois

People are discontent; men are troubled; and the literature is excellent. — Andre Maurois

Love born of anxiety resembles a thorn shaped so that efforts to pull it out of one's flesh merely cause it to penetrate more deeply therein. — Andre Maurois

The art of growing old is the art of being regarded by the oncoming generations as a support and not as a stumbling-block... — Andre Maurois

A great statesman, like a good housekeeper, knows that cleaning has to be done every morning. — Andre Maurois

A man cannot free himself from the past more easily than he can from his own body. — Andre Maurois

The reputation of a Don Juan gives to a man the most dangerous power. Wise virgins resist it, but foolish virgins frequently yield to the desire to take a celebrated lover from a rival - even from a friend. This emotion is a complex one, mad up of vanity, respect for another woman's taste, and the need to establish self-assurance by winning a difficult victory. Don Juan chose his first mistresses; later he was chosen. — Andre Maurois

Two human beings anchored to one another are like two ships shaken by waves; their carcases collide with one another and creak. — Andre Maurois

Everything that is in agreement with our personal desires seems true; everything that is not puts us in a rage. — Andre Maurois

Either the soul is immortal and we shall not die, or it perishes with the flesh and we shall not know that we are dead. Live, then, as if you were eternal. — Andre Maurois

It is better to teach a few things perfectly than many things indifferently... — Andre Maurois

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

Style is the outcome of constraint. — Andre Maurois

Only passions can raise a man above the level of the animal. — Andre Maurois

Few are they who have never had a chance to achieve happiness- and fewer those who have taken that chance. — Andre Maurois

Advice is always a confession. — Andre Maurois

Lost Illusion is the undisclosed title of every novel. — Andre Maurois

Marriage is not something that can be accomplished all at once; it has to be constantly reaccomplished. A couple must never indulge in idle tranquility with the remark: "The game is won; let's relax." The game is never won. The chances of life are such that anything is possible. Remember what the dangers are for both sexes in middle age. A successful marriage is an edifice that must be rebuilt every day. — Andre Maurois

In a discussion, the difficulty lies, not in being able to defend your opinion, but to know it. — Andre Maurois

Art is an effort to create, beside the real world, a more humane world. — Andre Maurois

The reading of a fine book is an uninterrupted dialogue in which the book speaks and our soul replies. — Andre Maurois

It is not events and the things one sees and enjoys that produce happiness, but a state of mind which can endow events with its own quality, and we must hope for the duration of this state rather than the recurrence of pleasurable events. — Andre Maurois

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. — Andre Maurois

To reason with poorly chosen words is like using a pair of scales with inaccurate weights. — Andre Maurois

What men call friendship is only social intercourse, an exchange of favours and good offices; it comes down to a commercial dealing in which self-esteem always expects to profit. — Andre Maurois

Medicine is a very old joke, but it still goes on. — Andre Maurois

It is often said that in prosperity we have many friends, but that we are usually neglected when things go badly. I disagree. Not only do malicious people flock about us in order to witness our ruin, but other unfortunates as well, who have been kept away by our happiness, and now feel close to us on account of our troubles. — Andre Maurois

Old age diminishes our strength; it takes away our pleasures one after the other; it withers the soul as well as the body; it renders adventure and friendship difficult; and finally it is shadowed by thoughts of death. — Andre Maurois

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. — Andre Maurois

Style Is the hallmark of a temperament stamped on the material in hand. — Andre Maurois

The difficult part in an argument is not to defend one's opinion but rather to know it. — Andre Maurois

Artificial inflation of stocks must be considered a crime as serious as counterfeiting, which it closely resembles. — Andre Maurois

Genius consists of equal parts of natural aptitude and hard work. — Andre Maurois

If you create a character, you create a destiny. — Andre Maurois

Every ten years you should delete from your mind a few ideas that your experience has proven to be false. — Andre Maurois

Happiness flourishes where there is happiness... — Andre Maurois

The clear and simple words of common usage are always better than those of erudition. The jargon of the philosophers not seldom conceals an absence of thought. — Andre Maurois

[...] marriage is one thing, and love is another...You need to have a solid canvas; nobody stops you to weave the arabesques. — Andre Maurois

Time is a factor in all action. An imperfect scheme put into action at the proper time is better than a perfect one accomplished too late. — Andre Maurois

The minds of different generations are as impenetrable one by the other as are the monads of Leibniz. — Andre Maurois

Almost all great writers have as their motif, more or less disguised, the passage from childhood to maturity, the clash between the thrill of expectation and the disillusioning knowledge of truth. 'Lost Illusion' is the undisclosed title of every novel. — Andre Maurois

Novelty, the most potent of all attractions, is also the most perishable. — Andre Maurois

There are very few really brilliant men who have not had at least one madman among their ancestors. — Andre Maurois

The longer the road to love, the keener is the pleasure... — Andre Maurois

One has very little influence upon one's children. Their characters are what they are and one can do nothing to change them. — Andre Maurois

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

Woman's great strength lies in being late or absent. Presence immediately reveals the weak points of our beloved; when she is absent she become one of the sylph-like figures of our adolescence whom we endowed with perfection. — Andre Maurois

Inspiration in matters of taste will not come twice. — Andre Maurois

Experience is valuable only when it has brought suffering and when the suffering has left its mark upon both body and mind. — Andre Maurois

Life Lessons by Andre Maurois

1. Andre Maurois taught that life is a journey, and that it is important to take risks and learn from our mistakes.
2. He also believed that it is important to be passionate and to strive for excellence in all that we do.
3. Lastly, he taught that it is important to take time to enjoy the small moments of life, and to appreciate the beauty of the world around us.