Frases de André Maurois

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“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.”

“To work is to transform or move things or creatures in ways that will render them more useful or more beautiful; it is also to study the laws governing these transformations, formulate them or apply them.”

“"Old age is a tyrant," said La Rochefoucauld, "who forbids indulgence in the pleasures of youth under penalty of death." First of all, those of love are prohibited. Old men and old women have the utmost difficulty in inspiring love, though they be full of spirit and vigor. When affairs of this sort do exist, it must be determined how great a part is played by respect, admiration, and abnegation.”

“"Teaching," wrote Alain, "must be determinedly slow in pace." This phrase is full of meaning for some modern educators with a dangerous tendency towards neglecting the ancient culture of the race, a necessary foundation for all education, and towards stressing recent doctrines and happenings. Information is not culture, and young men need culture much more than they need information.”

“A man who is trying sincerely to disentangle the web of human affairs is greatly helped by the nearness of a woman's mind, vigilant, clever, discreet, lucid, which lights up that shadowy half of his world: women's thoughts.”

“The true sporting spirit has always something religious about it.”

“Clearly, the central argument of the opponents to marriage is that it is an institution whose purpose is to stabilize something that cannot be stabilized, to make something last that will not last. All are agreed that physical love is as natural an instinct as huger or thirst, but the permanence of love is not instinctive. If, as is the case with so many men, physical love must have change, then why the promise of a life's devotion?”

“Pascal said that if geometry stirred us emotionally as much as politics we would not be able to expound it so well.”

“Well fitted for friendship is he whom men have not disgusted with mankind, and who, believing and knowing that there are a few noble men, a few great minds, a few delightful souls scattered through the crowd, never tires of searching for them, and loves them even before he has found them.”

“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.”

“Balzac says that many young husbands are so ignorant of women that they make him think of orang-outangs trying to play the violin.”

“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 truth is that, from the immense spectacle of the world, each novelists retains the one adventure which enable shim to give expression to his own essential self, just as the painter sees in nature only pictures painted in his manner.”

“The whole reason of this War is because the Germans have no sense of humor.”

“Two world wars have destroyed in a few years the material and spiritual capital accumulated by centuries of work. The nineteenth century had hoped to turn man, by virtue of education, into a reasoning being: a half-century of ferocity has proved that a cruel, primitive beast still resides in him.”

“It is wrongly held by many that to be happy one must have the admiration and respect of a great many people; but the esteem of one's own circle is essential. Stéphane Mallarmé, deeply beloved by a few disciples, was far happier than a celebrated man who knows that his reputation is questioned by those whom he admires. The monastery had brought peace to innumerable souls through its singleness of thought and purpose.”

“No great amount of experience is required to discover that the greedy search for money or success will almost always lead men into unhappiness. Why? Because that kind of life makes them depend upon things outside themselves.”

“An efficient woman secretary is the perfect assistant. Her role is not confined to taking dictation and "tapping out" letters; she must also file letters and replies, memorize addresses, and turn herself into a walking index. She must possess all the virtues of a departmental head, as well as those of a woman. Being a woman, she has intuition; she can keep intact the self-esteem of her superiors, and she spreads and agreeable atmosphere about the office. At the same time she must not make her femininity obvious, for if one of her superiors should become too conscious of it, the work would suffer. A difficult balance, but one that can be maintained.”

“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….”

“England will pay ten thousand a year to a lawyer or a banker, but when she has splendid fellows like me who conquer empires and keep them for her, she only gives them just enough to keep their polo ponies.”

“Character is of the first importance, but intelligence is nevertheless essential. Ii is desirable for a leader to have a broad education. History and poetry increase his knowledge of human passions. Culture offers the man of action opportunities now and then to capture his serenity; it puts at his disposal models of order and clarity. It is, in a sense, a work of art to reconstruct a country or to lead an army, and the man who has acquired a sense of beauty from his studies will be the more successful for it.”

“It is often maintained that friendship between men and women can never approach the high level of friendship between men. How, it is objected, could sensuality not be present in such relationships? if it were not present, would not the least coquettish of women feel herself humiliated? It is contrary to every natural impulse for a man to associate with a woman as freely as is usual in friendship without occasionally being conscious of physical desire, and if he is conscious of it, the whole machinery of the passions is set in motion.”