André Maurois Quotes

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.

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.

The best part of our misfortunes - our moral unhappiness, I mean - comes from the fact that we have words to describe them... We give them body, we even go so far as to give them a body which is not their own, for the words of common language do not always correspond to our sufferings, which may be of a new and distinct sort. … And then, too, words prolong and preserve sorrows that should long have been forgotten. Animal nature forgets....

...Sometimes with men, their pride can override their hearts..."

Our poor bodies have strength and resources that we learn to know only when we are in the gravest situations.

No one judges the mistakes of love - so long as they are accompanied by sincere repentance - no one judges them with more understanding than a woman at once irreproachable and sensitive.

Genius consists of equal parts of natural aptitude and hard work.

It's better to arouse pity than envy.

A little unsure of himself in her presence, he always addressed her in questions, a habit common to parents, sovereigns, generals, and teachers.

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

REMEDIES: To be strong. A nation that is not ready to die for its liberties will lose them.
To act quickly. Ten thousand airplanes built in time are better than fifty thousand after the battle.
To direct opinion. A leader shows the way; he does not follow.
To preserve a united country. Political parties are passengers aboard the same ship; if they wreck it, all will perish.
To protect public opinion against the influences of foreign governments. To defend ideas is legitimate; to accept money from abroad for defending them is a crime.
To punish immediately and severely any illegal violence. Incitement to illegal violence is a crime.
To protect youth against teaching calculated to weaken the unity of the country. A state that does not try to preserve itself commits suicide.
To demand that those who govern lead upright lives. Vice of any kind gives a foothold to the enemy.
To believe passionately in the ideas and in the way of life for which you are fighting. It is faith that creates armies and even arms. Liberty deserves to be served with more passion than tyranny.

In attaching so much importance to the idea of the League of Nations England was moved in part by a sincere idealism but also by a false idea she had formed of a League of Nations that would overcome cannon with volleys of edifying discourse.

From the day of the Armistice England had wanted nothing but to return to her well-kept lawns, her country houses, her sports, her traditional way of life, and she turned a deaf ear to all talk of armaments and fighting. Her professors taught the youth of the country that war was a survival of barbarism and could easily be eliminated. They did not tell their pupils that unless force is used to sustain justice injustice will triumph.

In 1936 at the time when the German troops had reoccupied the Rhineland in defiance of the Treaty of Locarno, English public opinion, drunk with pacifism, had refused to support us.
"Why should we?" an English politician said to me. "The Germans can do what they like in their own back garden."

We English, Lord Tyrrell, Ambassador to France, said to me about 1930, we English, after the war, made two mistakes: we believed the French, because they had been victorious, had become Germans, and we believed the Germans, through some mysterious transmutation, had become Englishmen.