André Maurois

“A happy marriage is a long conversation which always seems too short.”

“Growing old is no more than a bad habit which a busy man has no time to form.”

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

“The first recipe for happiness is: avoid too lengthy meditation on the past.”

“Business is a combination of war and sport.”

“Without a family, man, alone in the world, trembles with the cold.”

“If you create an act, you create a habit. If you create a habit, you create a character. If you create a character, you create a destiny.”

“A successful marriage is an edifice that must be rebuilt every day.”

“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.”

“The most important quality of a leader is that of being acknowledged as such.”

“Politeness is the art of choosing among your thoughts.”

“The art of living is more like wrestling than dancing.”

“Memory is a great artist. For every man and for every woman it makes the recollection of his or her life a work of art and an unfaithful record.”

“A great writer is, so to speak, a second government in his country. And for that reason no regime has ever loved great writers, only minor ones.”

“The secret of a good old age is simply an honorable pact with solitude.”

“A classic is a book that has never finished saying what it has to say.”

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

“An artist's only moral duty is to be true to his art.”

“Conversation is a game of circles.”

“Old age is a tyrant, who forbids, under pain of death, all the pleasures of youth.”