André Maurois
André Maurois, born Emile Salomon Wilhelm Herzog, was a French author. André Maurois was a pseudonym that became his legal name in 1947.
During World War I he joined the French army and served as an interpreter and later a liaison officer to the British army. His first novel, Les silences du colonel Bramble, was a witty but socially realistic account of that experience. It was an immediate success in France. It was translated and also became popular in the United Kingdom and other English-speaking countries as The Silence of Colonel Bramble. Many of his other works have also been translated into English (mainly by Hamish Miles (1894–1937)), as they often dealt with British people or topics, such as his biographies of Disraeli, Byron, and Shelley.
During 1938 Maurois was elected to the prestigious Académie française. Maurois was encouraged and assisted in seeking this post by Marshal Philippe Pétain, and he made a point of acknowleging with thanks his debt to Pétain in his 1941 autobiography, Call no man happy - though by the time of writing, their paths had sharply diverged, Pétain having become Head of State of the Nazi-collaborationist Vichy France.
During World War II he served in the French army and the Free French Forces.
He died during 1967 after a long career as an author of novels, biographies, histories, children's books and science fiction stories. He is buried in the Neuilly-sur-Seine community cemetery near Paris.
“Old age is far more than white hair, wrinkles, the feeling that it is too late and the game is finished, that the stage belongs to the rising generations. The true evil is not the weakening of the body, but the indifference of the soul.”
“Doua fiinte umane ancorate una langa cealalta sunt ca doua corabii leganate de valuri; cocile lor se ciocnesc si gem.”
“O mare dragoste nu este de ajuns pentru a lega de tine fiinta pe care o iubesti, daca nu te pricepi sa umpli viata celuilalt cu o bogatie necontenit reimprospatata.”
“Smile, for everyone lacks self-confidence and more than any other one thing a smile reassures them.”
“Without a family,man,alone in the world, trembles with the cold.”
“One might have said that reason made him flee from reason.”
“نحن حكماء عندما يتعلق الامر بالاخرين..من يستطيع القول ان لديه ما يكفي من الشجاعه لتحمل الام الاخرين؟-ميرين”
“Lo que mas separa a las personas es, sin duda, que unos vivan en el pasado y otros en el presente.”
“Amamos a aquellas personas que destilan una extraña esencia, que es la que nos falta para tener un compuesto químico equilibrado.”
“İşte kadınların zekaları böylece,kendilerini seven erkeklerden kalma tortulardan ileri gelir,tıpkı bunun gibi erkeklerin zevkinde de,yaşamlarından geçmiş olan kadınların izi kalır; çoğu kez de bir kadının bize çektirdiği dayanılmaz acılar başka bir kadının bizi sevmesine ve mutsuz olmasına neden olur.”
“A successful marriage is an edifice that must be rebuilt every day. ”
“Almost all great writers 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 truth. 'Lost Illusion' is the undisclosed title of every novel.”
“Often we allow ourselves to be upset by small things we should despise and forget. We lose many irreplaceable hours brooding over grievances that, in a year's time, will be forgotten by us and by everybody. No, let us devote our life to worthwhile actions and feelings, to great thoughts, real affections and enduring undertakings.”
“The art of reading is in great part that of acquiring a better understanding of life from one's encounter with it in a book. ”
“Two human beings anchored to one another are like two ships shaken by waves; their carcases collide with one another and creak.”
“Every ten years you should delete from your mind a few ideas that your experience has proven to be false, dangerous.”
“[...] marriage is one thing, and love is another...You need to have a solid canvas; nobody stops you to weave the arabesques...”
“Happiness is never there to stay [...] Happiness is merely a respite offered by inquietude.”
“Conversation would be vastly improved by the constant use of four simple words: I do not know.”
“The reading of a fine book is an uninterrupted dialogue in which the book speaks and our soul replies.”
“The friendship of two young people,' says Goethe somewhere, 'is delightful when the girl likes to learn and the boy to teach.' It will perhaps be said that this virgin curiosity is no more than unconscious physical desire; but what does it matter, if this desire sharpens the mind and deadens conceit?”
“We owe to the Middle Ages the two worst inventions of humanity – gunpowder and romantic love. ”
“A happy marriage is a long conversation which always seems too short.”
“In literature as in love, we are astonished at what is chosen by others.”