Quote

Writing is a difficult trade which must be learned slowly by reading great authors by trying at the outset to imitate them by daring then to be original by destroying one's first productions.

Andre Maurois

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Andre Maurois
Age: 82 †
Born: 1885
Born: July 26
Died: 1967
Died: October 7
Biographer
Critic
Essayist
Historian
Literary Critic
Novelist
Philosopher
Science Fiction Writer
Screenwriter
Writer
Elboeuf
Herzog
Émile Salomon Wilhelm
Andre Maurois
Émile Salomon Wilhelm Herzog
Writing
Learned
Authors
Trying
Reading
Daring
Difficult
Destroying
Firsts
Slowly
Book
Productions
First
Originals
Must
Original
Outset
Great
Trade
Imitate

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The really great novel tends to be the exact negative of its author's life.
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Happiness is never there to stay [...] Happiness is merely a respite offered by inquietude.
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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.
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The difficult part in an argument is not to defend one's opinion but rather to know it.
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There are deserts in every life, and the desert must be depicted if we are to give a fair and complete idea of the country.
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The reading of a fine book is an uninterrupted dialogue in which the book speaks and our soul replies.
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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.
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One has very little influence upon one's children. Their characters are what they are and one can do nothing to change them.
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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.
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Self-pity comes so naturally to all of us. The most solid happiness can be shaken by the compassion of a fool.
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Conversation would be vastly improved by the constant use of four simple words: I do not know.
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Above all things, never be afraid. The enemy who forces you to retreat is himself afraid of you at that very moment.
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Old age is far more than white hair, wrinkles, the feeling that it is too late and the game 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.
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You don't love a man for what he says, but love what he says because you love him.
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Self-pity comes so naturally to all of us.
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Marriage makes a man more vulnerable by doubling the expanse of sail exposed to the tempests of social life.
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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.
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Without a family, man, alone in the world, trembles with the cold.
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Our minds have unbelievable power over our bodies.
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A great statesman, like a good housekeeper, knows that cleaning has to be done every morning.
Andre Maurois