Andre Gide Quotes
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The most gifted natures are perhaps also the most trembling.
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It is better to be hated for what you are than to be loved for something you are not.
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Not everyone can be an orphan.
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Art begins with resistance - at the point where resistance is overcome. No human masterpiece has ever been created without great labor.
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There is no prejudice that the work of art does not finally overcome.
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Everything has been said before, but since nobody listens we have to keep going back and beginning all over again.
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Most quarrels amplify a misunderstanding.
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Sin is whatever obscures the soul.
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The most beautiful things are those that madness prompts and reason writes.
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A straight path never leads anywhere except to the objective.
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One does not discover new lands without consenting to lose sight of the shore for a very long time.
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'Therefore' is a word the poet must not know.
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Welcome anything that comes to you, but do not long for anything else.
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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.
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Believe those who are seeking the truth. Doubt those who find it.
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The most important things to say are those which often I did not think necessary for me to say - because they were too obvious.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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To what a degree the same past can leave different marks - and especially admit of different interpretations.
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Great authors are admirable in this respect: in every generation they make for disagreement. Through them we become aware of our differences.
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Nothing is so silly as the expression of a man who is being complimented.
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Work and struggle and never accept an evil that you can change.