André Maurois Quotes

1885–1967 France

André Maurois (born Émile Salomon Wilhelm Herzog, 26 July 1885 – 9 October 1967) was a French author and man of letters. André Maurois was a pen name which became his legal name in 1947.

France
Academics
Novelists

Random André Maurois quote

114 quotes

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

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

We don't go to school to learn, but to be soaked in the prejudices of our class, without which we should be useless and unhappy.

Les silences du colonel Bramble (The Silence of Colonel Bramble) (1918)

The old writer, like the old actor, is a master of his craft. Youthfulness of style is no more than a matter of technique.

The Art of Writing (1957)

"'He who has found a good wife has found great happiness'", quoted the padre, "'but a quarrelsome woman is like a roof that lets in the rain.'"

Les silences du colonel Bramble (The Silence of Colonel Bramble) (1918)

Incoherence is not the monopoly of madness: all the main ideas of a sane man are irrational erections build up, for better or worse, to express his deepest feelings.

Les silences du colonel Bramble (The Silence of Colonel Bramble) (1918)

It is unprecedented...for the men who made a revolution to remain in power after it is over. Yet one still finds revolutionaries: that proves how badly history is taught.

Les silences du colonel Bramble (The Silence of Colonel Bramble) (1918)

The love of humanity is a pathological state of a sexual origin which often appears at the age of puberty in nervous and clever people. The excess of phosphorus in the system must get out somewhere.

Les silences du colonel Bramble (The Silence of Colonel Bramble) (1918)

A man's power and intelligence are limited. He who wants to do everything will never do anything.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Happiness flourishes where there is happiness, and love withers quickly in an atmosphere of constraint and gloom.

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

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

A Time for Silence (1942)

Knowledge is ours only if, at the moment of need, it offers itself to the mind without syllogisms or demonstrations for which there is no time.

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

A married man is only half a man.

Les silences du colonel Bramble (The Silence of Colonel Bramble) (1918)

A gentleman is never in a hurry.

Les silences du colonel Bramble (The Silence of Colonel Bramble) (1918)

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.

Les silences du colonel Bramble (The Silence of Colonel Bramble) (1918)

Almost all the great novels 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 the truth.

The Art of Writing (1957)

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

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

The longer the road to love, the keener is the pleasure to be experienced by the sensitive lover.

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

Attribution

Quotes and notes from Wikiquote: André Maurois (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0.