Andre Gide Quotes

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

It is with fine sentiments that bad literature is made. Descend to the bottom of the well if you wish to see the stars.

Christianity, above all, consoles; but there are naturally happy souls who do not need consolation. Consequently Christianity begins by making such souls unhappy, for otherwise it would have no power over them.

I have no use for knowledge that has not been preceded by a sensation

Be faithful to that which exists within yourself.

Sadness is almost never anything but a form of fatigue.

The pettiness of a mind can be measured by the pettiness of its adoration or its blasphemy.

How much more sensuality invites to art than does sentimentality.

The truth is that as soon as we are no longer obliged to earn our living, we no longer know what to do with our life and recklessly squander it.

Art that submits to orthodoxy, to even the soundest doctrines, but lacks imagination and deep self-expression is lost leaving only the craftsmanship.

An opinion, though it is original, does not necessarily differ from the accepted opinion; the important thing is that it does not try to conform to it.

What eludes logic is the most precious element in us, and one can draw nothing from a syllogism that the mind has not put there in advance.

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

One does not discover new lands without consenting to lose sight of the shore for a very long time.

One completely overcomes only what one assimilates.

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

Obtain from yourself all that makes complaining useless. No longer implore from others what you yourself can obtain.

The wise man is astonished by anything.

No encounter occured that day, and I was glad of it; I took out of my pocket a little Homer I had not opened since leaving Marseilles, reread three lines of the Odyssey, learned them by heart; then, finding sufficient sustenance in their rhythm and reveling in them at leisure, I closed the book and remained, trembling, more alive than I had thought possible, my mind numb with happiness.

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

The truth is, I hoped the cure would dislike me. I tried to think of disagreeable things to say to him -- I could hit on nothing that wasn't charming. It's wonderful how hard I find it not to be fascinating.

Believe those who seek the truth, doubt those who find it; doubt all, but do not doubt yourself.

Too chaste a youth leads to a dissolute old age.

The capacity to get free is nothing; the capacity to be free is the task.

A desire for truth is by no means a need for certitude and it would be unwise to confuse one with the other.

There are many things that seem impossible only so long as one does not attempt them.

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

At times is it seems that I am living my life backward, and that at the approach of old age my real youth will begin. My soul was born covered with wrinkles. Wrinkles my ancestors and parents most assiduously put there and that I had the greatest trouble removing.

The true hypocrite is the one who ceases to perceive his deception, the one who lies with sincerity.

Do not do what someone else could do as well as you. Do not say, do not write what someone else could say, could write as well as you. Care for nothing in yourself but what you feel exists nowhere else. And, out of yourself create, impatiently or patiently, the most irreplaceable of beings.

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

Money cannot buy happiness, but it can make you awfully comfortable while you're being miserable. Nothing prevents happiness like the memory of happiness.

Fish die belly upward, and rise to the surface. Its their way of falling.

I intend to bring you strength, joy, courage, perspicacity, defiance.

Wisdom comes not from reason but from love.

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

The individual man tries to escape the race. And as soon as he ceases to represent the race, he represents man.

I do not love men: I love what devours them.

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

They establish distinctions and reserves which I cannot apply to myself, for I exist only as a whole; my only claim is to be natural, and the pleasure I feel in an action, I take as a sign that I ought to do it.

Obsessions of the Orient, of the desert, of its ardor and its emptiness, of the shadows of palm gardens, of the garments white and wide - obsessions where the senses go berserk, where nerves are exasperated, and which made me, at the onset of each night, believe sleep impossible.

I would like the events never to be told directly by the author, but rather to be introduced (and several times, from various angles) by those among the characters on whom they will have had any effect. I would like those events, in the account they will make of them, to appear slightly distorted; a kind of interest stems, for the reader, from the simple fact that he should need to restore. The story requires his collaboration in order to properly take shape.

Nothing excellent can be done without leisure.

Fear of ridicule begets the worst cowardice.

If life were organized, there would be no need for art.

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

To love the truth is to refuse to let oneself be saddened by it.

In order to be utterly happy the only thing necessary is to refrain from comparing this moment with other moments in the past, which I often did not fully enjoy because I was comparing them with other moments of the future.