Andre Maurois

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

— Andre Maurois

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

— 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

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

Business is a combination of war and sport.

— Andre Maurois

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

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

— Andre Maurois

Conversation would be vastly improved by the constant use of four simple words: I do not know.

— 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

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

— Andre Maurois

Men and women are not born inconstant: they are made so by their early amorous experiences.

— Andre Maurois

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

— Andre Maurois

The most important quality in a leader is that of being acknowledged as such.

— Andre Maurois

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

— Andre Maurois

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

— Andre Maurois

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

— Andre Maurois

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

— Andre Maurois

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

— 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

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

— Andre Maurois

Style [Is] the hallmark of a temperament stamped on the material in hand.

— Andre Maurois

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

— Andre Maurois

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

— 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