Andre Gide Quotes

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

One doesn't discover new lands without consenting to lose sight, for a very long time, of the shore.

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

A straight path never leads anywhere except to the objective.

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

We should enjoy this summer, flower by flower, as if it were to be the last one we’ll see.

Art is a collaboration between God and the artist, and the less the artist does the better.

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

The thing I am most aware of is my limits. And this is natural; for I never, or almost never, occupy the middle of my cage; my whole being surges toward the bars.

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

How much more sensuality invites to art than does sentimentality.

What thwarts us and demands of us the greatest effort is also what can teach us most.

A caterpillar who seeks to know himself would never become a butterfly

What seems different in yourself; that's the rare thing you possess. The one thing that gives each of us his worth, and that's just what we try to suppress. And we claim to love life.

Seize from every moment its unique novelty, and do not prepare your joys.

The most decisive actions of our life - I mean those that are most likely to decide the whole course of our future - are, more often than not, unconsidered.

The color of truth is gray.

The most gifted natures are perhaps also the most trembling.

Whoever starts out toward the unknown must consent to venture alone.

Only fools don't contradict themselves

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

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

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.

The most subtle art, the strongest and deepest art - supreme art - is the one that does not at first allow itself to be recognized.

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

Sadness is almost never anything but a form of fatigue.

It is good to follow one's own bent, so long as it leads upward.

Sin is whatever obscures the soul.

It is often so: the harder it is to hear, the more a truth is worth saying.

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

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

Art begins with resistance - at the point where resistance is overcome. No human masterpiece has ever been created without great labor.

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

But can one still make resolutions when one is over forty? I live according to twenty-year-old habits.

Understanding is the beginning of approving.

The want of logic annoys. Too much logic bores. Life eludes logic, and everything that logic alone constructs remains artificial and forced.

One should want only one thing and want it constantly. Then one is sure of getting it. But I desire everything, and consequently get nothing.

True kindness presupposes the faculty of imagining as one's own the suffering and joys of others.

To know how to free oneself is nothing; the arduous thing is to know what to do with one's freedom.

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

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.

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

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

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

When intelligent people pride themselves on not understanding, it is quite natural they should succeed better than fools.

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

Be faithful to that which exists nowhere but in yourself- and thus make yourself indispensable.

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.

Nothing excellent can be done without leisure.

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