Andre Malraux
Andre Malraux
André Malraux DSOwas a French novelist, art theorist and Minister of Cultural Affairs. Malraux's novel La Condition Humainewon the Prix Goncourt. He was appointed by President Charles de Gaulle as Minister of Informationand subsequently as France's first Minister of Cultural Affairs during de Gaulle's presidency...
NationalityFrench
ProfessionAuthor
Date of Birth3 November 1901
CountryFrance
men yield leviathan
An individualism which has got beyond the stage of hedonism tends to yield to the lure of the grandiose. It was not man, the individual, nor even the Supreme Being, that Robespierre set up against Christ; it was that Leviathan, the Nation.
art struggle dark
Our characteristic response to the mutilated statue, the bronze dug up from the earth, is revealing. It is not that we prefer time-worn bas-reliefs, or rusted statuettes as such, nor is it the vestiges of death that grip us in them, but those of life. Mutilation is the scar left by the struggle with Time, and a reminder of it - Time which is as much a part of ancient works of art as the material they are made of, and thrusts up through the fissures, from a dark underworld, where all is at once chaos and determinism.
world doe genius
Genius is not perfected, it is deepened. It does not so much interpret the world as fertilize itself with it.
men secret age
The present age delights in unearthing a great man's secrets; for one thing because we like to temper our admiration and also perhaps we have a vague hope of finding a clue to genius in such "revelations.
artist world looks
As for the outside world, the artist is confronted by what he sees; but what he sees is primarily what he looks at.
life business men
Between eigtheen and twenty, life is like an exchange where one buys stocks, not with money, but with actions. Most men buy nothing.
stars powerful self
The great mystery is not that we should have been thrown down here at random between the profusion of matter and that of the stars; it is that from our very prison we should draw, from our own selves, images powerful enough to deny our own nothingness.
believe leader political
A political leader is necessarily an imposter since he believes in solving life's problems without asking its question.
thinking people harder
Nothing is harder than to get people to think about what they are going to do.
art world metamorphosis
The world of art is not a world of immortality but of metamorphosis.
life long fool
One can fool life for a long time, but in the end it always makes us what we were intended to be.
religious next tasks
The next century's task will be to rediscover its gods.
children enemy arguing
I don't argue with my enemies; I explain to their children.
democracy communism
Communism destroys democracy. Democracy can also destroy Communism.