Andre Maurois Quotes - Page 5

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.

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.

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.

Happiness flourishes where there is happiness...

If, in New York, you arrive late for an appointment, say, "I took a taxi".

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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

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.

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.

I knew a man who had been virtually drowned and then revived. He said that his death had not been painful.

Housekeeping in common is for women the acid test.

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