Quotes from Andre Malraux

To the humblest among them, who may be listening to me now, I want to say that the masterpiece to which you are paying historic homage this evening is a painting which he has saved.

War puts its questions stupidly, peace mysteriously.

The basic problem is that our civilization, which is a civilization of machines, can teach man everything except how to be a man.

If man is not ready to risk his life, where is his dignity?

Between eigtheen and twenty, life is like an exchange where one buys stocks, not with money, but with actions. Most men buy nothing.

The ordinary man puts up a struggle against all that is not himself, whereas it is against himself, in a limited but all-essential field, that the artist has to battle.

Every young man's heart is a graveyard in which are inscribed the names of a thousand dead artists but whose only actual denizens are a few mighty, often antagonistic, ghosts.

There's no such thing as a grown up person.

The mind supplies the idea of a nation but what gives this idea its sentimental force is a community of dreams.

Be careful -- with quotations, you can damn anything.

The first duty of a leader is to make himself be loved without courting love. To be loved without 'playing up' to anyone - even to himself.

You have not come back from hell with empty hands.

On ne peut pas faire un art qui parle aux masses quand on n'a rien à leur dire, mais nous luttons ensemble, nous voulons faire une autre vie ensemble, et nous avons tout à nous dire.

Toute situation présente au moins un élément positif ; il faut le trouver et travailler dessus.

Vorbele sunt oglinda gandurilor pe care le nutresti.

Les blessures du plus profond amour suffisent à faire une assez belle haine - La Condition Humaine

Ah ! pourquoi l'intelligence des femmes veut-elle toujours choisir un autre objet que le sien ? - Quel est le sien, cher ? - Le charme et la compréhension, de toute évidence. Elle réfléchit. - Ce que les hommes appellent ainsi, c'est la soumission de l'esprit. Vous ne reconnaissez chez une femme que l'intelligence qui vous approuve.

Qu'entendez-vous par : l'intelligence ? - En général ? - Oui. Ferral réfléchit. - La possession des moyens de contraindre les choses ou les hommes. Gisors sourit imperceptiblement. Chaque fois qu'il posait cette question, son interlocuteur, quel qu'il fût, répondait par le portrait de son désir, ou par l'image qu'il se faisait de lui-même.

Juger c'est, de toute évidence ne pas comprendre puisque, si l'on comprenait, on ne pourrait pas juger.

But, of course, of course, I imitated everyone! Except myself. -- Pablo Picasso

How can one make the best of one's life? By converting as wide a range of experience as possible into conscious thought.

People judge what they do not understand

Tragedy, in our times, is politics.

Le silence est une musique qui parle à l'âme.