Quotes by Andre Malraux

About Andre Malraux:

André Malraux was a French novelist, art theorist and Minister of Cultural Affairs. Malraux's novel La Condition Humaine (Man's Fate) (1933) won the Prix Goncourt. He was appointed by President Charles de Gaulle as Minister of Information (1945–1946) and subsequently as France's first Minister of Cultural Affairs during de Gaulle's presidency (1959–1969).
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Always, however brutal an age may actually have been, its style transmits its music only.

Andre Malraux

An art book is a museum without walls.

Andre Malraux

Art is a revolt against fate. All art is a revolt against man's fate.

Andre Malraux

To command is to serve, nothing more and nothing less.

Andre Malraux

Often the difference between a successful person and a failure is not one has better abilities or ideas, but the courage that one has to bet on one's ideas, to take a calculated risk - and to act.

Andre Malraux

Then I despair... I remember that all through history, the way of truth and love has always won. There have been murderers and tyrants, and for a time they can seem invincible. But in the end they always fall. Think of it always.

Andre Malraux

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.

Andre Malraux

War puts its questions stupidly, peace mysteriously.

Andre Malraux

And when man faces destiny, destiny ends and man comes into his own.

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.

Andre Malraux

Communism destroys democracy. Democracy can also destroy Communism.

Andre Malraux

Man is not what he thinks he is, he is what he hides.

Andre Malraux

Man knows that the world is not made on a human scale; and he wishes that it were.

Andre Malraux

There is always a need for intoxication: China has opium, Islam has hashish, the West has woman.

Andre Malraux

Opium teaches only one thing, which is that aside from physical suffering, there is nothing real.

Andre Malraux

Genius is not perfected, it is deepened. It does not so much interpret the world as fertilize itself with it.

Andre Malraux

The attempt to force human beings to despise themselves is what I call hell.

Andre Malraux

The crucial discovery was made that, in order to become painting, the universe seen by the artist had to become a private one created by himself.

Andre Malraux

L'amitié, dit-il, ce n'est pas d'être avec ses amis quand ils ont raison, c'est être avec eux même quand ils ont tord.

Andre Malraux

There are not fifty ways of fighting, there's only one, and that's to win. Neither revolution nor war consists in doing what one pleases.

Andre Malraux

Author Bio

  • NameAndre Malraux
  • DescriptionFrench novelist, art theorist and politician
  • BornNovember 3, 1901
  • DiedNovember 23, 1976
  • CountryFrance
  • ProfessionPolitician; Film Director; Screenwriter; Film Editor; Art Historian; Novelist; Writer
  • WorksMan's Fate
  • AwardsOfficer Of The Legion Of Honour; Croix De Guerre 1939–1945; Jawaharlal Nehru Award For International Understanding; Companion Of The Liberation; Prix Goncourt; Distinguished Service Order; Médaille De La Résistance; Order Of The Polar Star; Grand Order Of Merit With Star And Shoulder-Sash