Andre Gide quotes: wise famous quotes, sayings and quotations by Andre Gide

Andre Gide Famous Quotes & Sayings

Discover top inspirational quotes from Andre Gide on Wise Famous Quotes.

The true return to nature is the definitive return to the elements-death.

Often the best in us springs from the worst in us.

The world will be saved by one or two people.

Every instant of our lives is essentially irreplaceable: you must know this in order to concentrate on life.

Life never presents us with anything which may not be looked upon as a fresh starting point, no less than as a termination.

Only those things are beautiful which are inspired by madness and written by reason.

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

The scholar seeks truth, the artist finds.

Man cannot discover new oceans unless he has the courage to lose sight of the shore.

Seize from every moment it's unique novelty, and do not prepare your joys.

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

The only real education comes from what goes counter to you.

It is with noble sentiments that bad literature gets written.

To be sure, theory is useful. But without warmth of heart and without love it bruises the very ones it claims to save.

Sadness is a state of sin.

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

There's a law in life: whenever a door closes, a new one will open.

Existing is occupation
enough.

The itch is a mean, unconfessable, ridiculous malady; one can pity someone who is suffering ; someone who wants to scratch himself makes one laugh.

I cannot," said he, "expect everyone to have my virtues. It's good enough to meet with my vices ...

To win ones joy through struggle is better than to yield to melancholy.

I had forgotten I was alone; I sat there, waiting for nothing, oblivious to the time.

There's no better cure for the fear of taking after one's father, than not to know who he is.

The belief that becomes truth for me ... is that which allows me the best use of my strength, the best means of putting my virtues into action.

The most beaten paths are certainly the surest, but do not hope to start much game on them.

There is no prejudice that the work of art does not finally overcome.

If your target as a Muslim artist, writer or speaker is to target only Muslims you need to rethink your plan.

There are very few monsters who warrant the fear we have of them.

Everything's already been said, but since nobody was listening, we have to start again.

How would one tell a story about happiness? One can only tell of the origins of happiness and its destruction.

Clear and precise ideas are the most dangerous, for one does not dare to change them.

I can't expect others to share my virtues. It's good enough for me if they share my vices.

It is better to fail at your own life than to succeed at someone else's.

There is no feeling so simple that it is not immediately complicated and distorted by introspection.

Sadness is almost never anything but a form of fatigue.

This is my thesis: Do you know what is needful to turn an honest man into a rogue! A change of scene
a moment's forgetfulness suffice.

I advise the young to tell themselves constantly that most often it is up to them alone.

I prefer granting with a good grace what I know I shan't be able to prevent.

Believe those who seek the truth, doubt those who find it.

Too chaste a youth leads to a dissolute old age.

There is no work of art that is without short cuts.

Solitude is bearable only with God.

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

It is not becoming to lay to virtue the weariness of old age.

What would be the description of happines? Nothing, except what prepares and then what destroys it, can be told.

If a young writer can refrain from writing, he shouldn't hesitate to do so.

Do not scorn little victories.

Poverty makes a slave out of men. In order to eat he will accept work that gives no pleasure.

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

Without mysticism man can achieve nothing great.

If only we could lean over the soul we love and see as in a mirror the image we cast!

Wisdom comes not from reason but from love.

Sin is whatever obscures the soul.

Those who complimented me were those who understood me the least.

The greatest intelligence is precisely the one that suffers the most from its own limitations.

The wise man is astonished by anything.

For what use is it to forbid what we can't prevent? If books are forbidden, children read them on the sly.

Those who have never been ill are incapable of real sympathy for a great many misfortunes

The loveliest creations of men are persistently painful. What would be the description of happiness?

I am not sure whether I altogether understand you. You make me curious. I don't much care about talking, but I should like to talk to you.

Everything has been said before, but since nobody listens we have to keep going back & beginning all over again.

Profound optimism is always on the side of the tortured.

The nationalist has a broad hatred and a narrow love.

Let every emotion be capable becoming an intoxication to you. If what you eat fails to make you drunk, it is because you are not hungry enough.

People don't want to be like themselves. They all choose a model to imitate, or if they don't choose a model themselves, they accept one ready-made.

And who shall say how many passions and how many hostile thoughts may live together in the mind of man?

Be faithful to that which exists within yourself.

By the time a philospher answers a question weve usually forgotten what was asked.

When I cease to be indignant I will have begun my old age.

True intelligence very readily conceives of an intelligence superior to its own; and this is why truly intelligent men are modest.

It's madness to envy other people's happiness. Happiness doesn't come of the peg, it has to be made to measure.

You have to let other people be right' was his answer to their insults. 'It consoles them for not being anything else.

With each book you write you should lose the admirers you gained with the previous one.

In other people's company I felt I was dull, gloomy, unwelcome, at once bored and boring ...

Man's responsibility increases as that of the gods decreases.

Fear of ridicule begets the worst cowardice.

Knowing how to free oneself is nothing; the difficult thing is knowing how to live with that freedom.

One imagines one possesses and in reality one is possessed.

The less intelligent the white man is, the more stupid he thinks the black.

Never have I been able to settle in life. Always seated askew, as if on the arm of a chair; ready to get up, to leave.

There are admirable potentialities in every human being.

When everything belongs to everyone, nobody will take care of anything.

Often with good sentiments we produce bad literature.

Every perfect action is accompanied by pleasure. By that you can tell what you ought to do.

Atheism. There is not a single exalting and emancipating influence that does not in turn become inhibitory.

He who wants a rose must respect her thorn.

Each of us really understands in others only those feelings he is capable of producing himself.

Better to be silent and thought a fool than to speak and remove all doubt.

Life was nothing other than what came and went with each passing moment.

Believe those who are seeking the truth. Doubt those who find it.

Only fools don't contradict themselves

It is better to be hated for what you are than to be loved for what you are not.

We no longer admit any other truth than that which is expedient; for there is no worse error than the truth that may weaken the arm that is fighting.

The self requires a story.

Rather than recount his life as he has lived it, he must live his life as he will recount it.

Oh," I thought, "without a doubt, everything in my life is falling to pieces. Nothing that my hand grasps can my hand hold.

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.

From the satisfaction of desire there may arise, accompanying joy and as it were sheltering behind it, something not unlike despair.

God depends on us. It is through us that God is achieved.

So as long as we live among men, let us cherish humanity.