Andre Gide's Quotes

Man is more interesting than men. God made him and not them in his image. Each one is more precious than all.

The most beautiful things are those that madness prompts and reason writes.

The sole art that suits me is that which, rising from unrest, tends toward serenity.

'Therefore' is a word the poet must not know.

To read a writer is for me not merely to get an idea of what he says, but to go off with him and travel in his company.

Work and struggle and never accept an evil that you can change.

It is not always by plugging away at a difficulty and sticking to it that one overcomes it; often it is by working on the one next to it. Some things and some people have to be approached obliquely, at an angle.

Complete possession is proved only by giving. All you are unable to give possesses you.

Great authors are admirable in this respect: in every generation they make for disagreement. Through them we become aware of our differences.

In hell there is no other punishment than to begin over and over again the tasks left unfinished in your lifetime.

It is unthinkable for a Frenchman to arrive at middle age without having syphilis and the Cross of the Legion of Honor.

No theory is good unless it permits, not rest, but the greatest work. No theory is good except on condition that one use it to go on beyond.

Not everyone can be an orphan.

Nothing is so silly as the expression of a man who is being complimented.

Sin is whatever obscures the soul.

The most decisive actions of life are most often unconsidered actions.

The most gifted natures are perhaps also the most trembling.

To what a degree the same past can leave different marks - and especially admit of different interpretations.

Welcome anything that comes to you, but do not long for anything else.

What would there be in a story of happiness? Only what prepares it, only what destroys it can be told.

Know thyself. A maxim as pernicious as it is ugly. Whoever studies himself arrest his own development. A caterpillar who seeks to know himself would never become a butterfly.

I owe much to my friends; but, all things considered, it strikes me that I owe even more to my enemies. The real person springs life under a sting even better than under a caress.

Old hands soil, it seems, whatever they caress, but they too have their beauty when they are joined in prayer. Young hands were made for caresses and the sheathing of love. It is a pity to make them join too soon.

Be faithful to that which exists within yourself.

A straight path never leads anywhere except to the objective.

It is only in adventure that some people succeed in knowing themselves - in finding themselves.