Quotes by Andre Gide

• Through loyalty to the past, our mind refuses to realize that tomorrow's joy is possible only if today's makes way for it; that each wave owes the beauty of its line only to the withdrawal of the preceding one.
• There are very few monsters who warrant the fear we have of them.
• The color of truth is gray.
• The most beautiful things are those that madness prompts and reason writes.
• The most decisive actions of life are most often unconsidered actions.
• The most gifted natures are perhaps also the most trembling.
• The most important things to say are those which often I did not think necessary for me to say - because they were too obvious.
• To what a degree the same past can leave different marks - and especially admit of different interpretations.
• The want of logic annoys. Too much logic bores. Life eludes logic, and everything that logic alone constructs remains artificial and forced.
• Work and struggle and never accept an evil that you can change.
• There is no prejudice that the work of art does not finally overcome.
• "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.
• Welcome anything that comes to you, but do not long for anything else.
• What another would have done as well as you, do not do it. What another would have said as well as you, do not say it; what another would have written as well, do not write it. Be faithful to that which exists nowhere but in yourself-and thus make yourself indispensable.
• What would there be in a story of happiness? Only what prepares it, only what destroys it can be told.
• The sole art that suits me is that which, rising from unrest, tends toward serenity.
• It is good to follow one's own bent, so long as it leads upward.
• Art is a collaboration between God and the artist, and the less the artist does the better.
• Art is the collaboration between God and the artist, and the less the artist does the better.
• Be faithful to that which exists within yourself.
• Believe those who are seeking the truth. Doubt those who find it.
• Complete possession is proved only by giving. All you are unable to give possesses you.
• Everything has been said before, but since nobody listens we have to keep going back and beginning all over again.
• Fish die belly upward, and rise to the surface. Its their way of falling.
• God depends on us. It is through us that God is achieved.
• Great authors are admirable in this respect: in every generation they make for disagreement. Through them we become aware of our differences.
• 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.
• In hell there is no other punishment than to begin over and over again the tasks left unfinished in your lifetime.
• A straight path never leads anywhere except to the objective.
• It is easier to lead men to combat, stirring up their passion, than to restrain them and direct them toward the patient labors of peace.
• 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.
• It is only in adventure that some people succeed in knowing themselves - in finding themselves.
• It is unthinkable for a Frenchman to arrive at middle age without having syphilis and the Cross of the Legion of Honor.
• 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.
• Man is more interesting than men. God made him and not them in his image. Each one is more precious than all.
• Most quarrels amplify a misunderstanding.
• 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.
• Nothing prevents happiness like the memory of happiness.
• One does not discover new lands without consenting to lose sight of the shore for a very long time.
• Only those things are beautiful which are inspired by madness and written by reason.
• Art begins with resistance - at the point where resistance is overcome. No human masterpiece has ever been created without great labor.
• One cannot discover new oceans unless one has the courage to lose sight of the shore
• It is better to be hated for what you are than to be loved for what you are not.
• It is better to be hated for what you are than to be loved for what you are not
• The only way to discover new lands is to have the courage to lose sight of the shore
• It is better to be hated for what you are than be loved for what you are not.
• You can't discovery new oceans until you have the courage to lose sight of the shore.