Frases de André Maurois

“A felicidade é uma flor que não se deve colher.”

“A leitura de um bom livro é um diálogo incessante: o livro fala e a alma responde.”

“A sinceridade é de vidro e a discrição de diamante”

“Um verdadeiro estadista ostenta a imagem do seu país.”

“A qualidade mais importante em um líder é aquela de ser reconhecido como tal. Todos os líderes cuja aptidão é questionada são claramente desprovidos de força.”

“A civilização outra coisa não é senão a aceitação, por parte dos homens, de convenções comuns.”

“O homem rico tem comensais ou parasitas, o homem poderoso, cortesãos, o homem de acção, camaradas, que também são amigos”

“O homem de acção é antes de tudo um poeta.”

“Os homens entregam a alma como as mulheres o corpo, por zonas sucessivas e bem defendidas.”

“Aquilo que os homens menos vos perdoam é o mal que disseram de vós.”

“O que fizeste para a mulher, isso ela pode esquecer, mas nunca esquecerá aquilo que para ela não fizeste.”

“Certas mulheres pedem a uma amiga para guardar um segredo, somente para difundirem uma notícia.”

“Acima de tudo, nunca tenha medo. O inimigo quer forçá-lo ao recuo, e tem exatamente neste momento medo de você.”

“O casamento é um edifício que deve ser reconstruído todos os dias.”

“A morte não pode ser pensada, pois é ausência de pensamento. Temos de viver como se fôssemos eternos.”

“O matrimónio é algo no qual é necessário trabalhar permanentemente e nunca está pronto.”

“Há em todo o sucesso humano uma parte mal definida de felicidade.”

“A razão de ser de qualquer fé é trazer-nos uma certeza.”

“A certeza de ser amado dá robustez a um espírito tímido, tornando-o natural.”

“Os azares da vida são tais, que toda eventualidade se faz possível.”

“A amizade supõe a confiança, união de pensamentos e esperança.”

“O verdadeiro mal da velhice não é o enfraquecimento do corpo, é a indiferença da alma.”

“Muitas pessoas estragam a vida com a imaginação da infelicidade que as ameaça.”

“O amor nos outros é para nós quase sempre incompreensível.”

“Poucos são os que nunca tiveram uma oportunidade de alcançar a felicidade e menos ainda os que aproveitaram essa oportunidade.”

“No matrimónio, uma profunda análise mútua conduz a uma infinita querela.”

“O nosso amor erra à procura de um ser nobre sobre o qual se possa fixar.”

“O verdadeiro matrimónio é uma mistura particular de amor, amizade, consideração e sensualidade.”

“A ciência? Ao fim e ao cabo, o que é ela senão uma longa e sistemática curiosidade?”

“Todos os negócios que me propõem são maus, porque se fossem bons não mos propunham.”

“Os mais verdadeiros e os mais vivos amores são sempre os mais inesperados.”

“Não basta ter espírito. É preciso tê-lo o bastante para abster-se de tê-lo em demasia.”

“Os negócios são a combinação da guerra e do desporto.”

“Só podemos falar francamente sobre nossos defeitos para aqueles que reconhecem nossas qualidades.”

“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.”

“Experience is valuable only when it has brought suffering and when the suffering has left its mark upon both body and mind. Sleepless nights and conflicts with reality make statesmen realists; how could these experiences be usefully handed on to young idealists who expect to transform the universe without effort? The counsels of Polonius are platitudes, but the moment we start giving advice we are all like Polonius. For us those platitudes are packed with meaning, memories, and visions. For our children, they are abstract and boring. We should like to make a wise woman of a girl of twenty; it is physiologically impossible. "The counsels of old age," said Vauvenargues, "are like a winter's sun which gives light but no warmth."”

“For intelligent people, action often means escape from thought, but it is a reasonable and a wise escape.”

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

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

“Either the soul is immortal and we shall not die, or it perishes with the flesh and we shall not know that we are dead. Live, then, as if you were eternal”

“In literature as in love, we are astonished at what is chosen by others.”

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

“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. Byron said that he had been raped oftener than anyone since the Trojan War.”

“Does absolute reliance carry with it a complete exchange of confidences? I believe that true friendship cannot exist otherwise.”

“Great things are not accomplished with physical strength and agility," says Cicero, "but through consultation, authority, and the mature wisdom which old age, far from lacking, is endowed with abundantly.”

“If I had to preach a sermon on the family I would take for my text this phrase of Paul Valery's: "In every family there is concealed a specific interior boredom which causes its members to escape and live their own lives. There is also in every family an ancient and powerful force which manifests itself when the group is gathered in the dining-room for its evening meal, when its members feel free to be completely themselves.”

“Everything that is in agreement with our personal desires seems true; everything that is not puts us in a rage.”

“Among the idle rich, boredom is one of the most common causes of unhappiness. People who have difficulty in earning their living may suffer greatly, but they are not bored. Wealthy men and women become bored when they depend upon the theater for their enjoyment instead of making their own lives interesting.”

“After 1930, political theorists had begun to realize that every democracy—being a government of public opinion—is largely in the hands of those who make public opinion—that is to say, the newspaper-owners. In every country the big business men, the great financiers, were being compelled to purchase the influential newspapers and had little by little succeeded in doing so. They had been very clever in respecting the the external forms of democracy. The people continued to elect their deputies, who continued to to go through the forms of choosing ministers and presidents; but the ministers, presidents, and deputies could hold on to their positions only so long as they did what the Masters of Public Opinion told them to do; and, being well aware of this fact, they were duly submissive.”

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

“It is often said that in prosperity we have many friends, but that we are usually neglected when things go badly. I disagree. Not only do malicious people flock about us in order to witness our ruin, but other unfortunates as well, who have been kept away by our happiness, and now feel close to us on account of our troubles. When Shelley was poor and unknown, he had more friends than the triumphant Lord Byron. It takes great nobility of soul to be able, without any taint of self-interest, to be friends with fortunate people.”

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

“Almost all of our fellow-beings deceive us, but a few of us have known the joy of meeting a woman or a man whose sincerity and frankness were genuine, who in almost every situation has behaved according to our wishes, and who in our most difficult moments has not forsaken us. Those few are familiar with that marvelous feeling: confidence. With at least one person they are able for a little while each day to lift the heavy visor of their helmets, breathe freely, and show their faces and their hearts without fear.”

“It is a great joy to admire someone without reserve; love which is founded upon admiration of the mind as well as the body of the chosen person undoubtedly affords the keenest delight.”

“In the misfortunes of our best friends, we always find something not unpleasing.”

“It is restful to leave one's home; not because traveling does not entail varied and difficult daily actions, but because it removes our responsibilities. Except in the case of official persons, the traveler now lives for himself alone, and is no longer accountable to a community or a family clan. A foreign country is merely a spectacle; in it we no longer have the continual awareness of responsibility. All of us, from time to time, need a plunge into freedom and novelty, after which routine and discipline will seem delightful by contrast. Periods of rest, however, must be brief, but it is amazing to discover how a few days of travel can restore our mental freshness.”

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

“Human beings are lazy and it very often happens that one wearies of a new-born emotion for no valid reason unless there is some restraint to stimulate and stabilize it.”

“He who has found a good wife has found great happiness, but a quarrelsome woman is like a roof that lets in the rain.”

“Passionate love produces distorted visions of actual people. Men who are too much in love expect such extraordinary happiness from marriage that they are frequently disappointed.”

“An exacting leader can always command more affection that one who is indifferent. The best way to impose severity is to have about one only those whose qualities one values. Any man ca easily endure criticism if his character and intelligence are clearly not called into question. To say quickly and forcefully what one feels strongly is the wise course. A sever reproach, if rapidly spoken, is less painful than hostile and sulky dissatisfaction. Subordinates must realize that if an order is not carried out they will suffer, but also that they will be exonerated if its execution leads to disaster. A true leader will always take full responsibility for his actions.”

“In every young government strength is worth more than ancestral wisdom, but no government can remain young. As it grows older there is more respect for mature men than for old men. The leader who has build his career upon a basis of youth, loses youth. Like the old wolf, he tries to hide his disgrace; he keeps himself fit and affects the fearlessness and excess of a young man; but sooner or later time will make him a senator, then a corpse.”

“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.”