A happy marriage is a long conversation which always seems too short.
– Andre Maurois
An artist must be a reactionary. He has to stand out against the tenor of the age and not go flopping along.
– Andre Maurois
Business is a combination of war and sport.
– Andre Maurois
Conversation would be vastly improved by the constant use of four simple words: I do not know.
– Andre Maurois
Growing old is no more than a bad habit which a busy person has no time to form.
– 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
If you value a man's regard, strive with him. As to liking, you like your newspaper - and despise it.
– Andre Maurois
Lost Illusion is the undisclosed title of every novel.
– Andre Maurois
Modesty and unselfishness - these are the virtues which men praise - and pass by.
– 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
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
Self-pity comes so naturally to all of us. The most solid happiness can be shaken by the compassion of a fool.
– Andre Maurois
Smile, for everyone lacks self-confidence and more than any other one thing a smile reassures them.
– Andre Maurois
Style is the hallmark of a temperament stamped upon the material at hand.
– Andre Maurois
The difficult part in an argument is not to defend one's opinion but rather to know it.
– Andre Maurois
The effectiveness of work increases according to geometric progression if there are no interruptions.
– Andre Maurois
The first recipe for happiness is: Avoid too lengthy meditation on the past.
– Andre Maurois
There are certain persons for whom pure Truth is a poison.
– 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
To be witty is not enough. One must possess sufficient wit to avoid having too much of it.
– Andre Maurois
We owe to the Middle Ages the two worst inventions of humanity - romantic love and gunpowder.
– Andre Maurois
Without a family, man, alone in the world, trembles with the cold.
– 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
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 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
Men and women are not born inconstant: they are made so by their early amorous experiences.
– Andre Maurois
Memory is a great artist. For every man and for every woman it makes the recollection of his or her life a work of art and an unfaithful record.
– 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.