André Gide: Trending quotes

André Gide trending quotes. Read the latest quotes in collection

André Gide: 148 quotes18 likes

“Nothing is more fatal to happiness than the remembrance of happiness.”

André Gide book The Immoralist

Source: The Immoralist

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

André Gide book The Immoralist

Source: The Immoralist

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

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

“When people felt they had a right to seek out Christ before the torment, and in the fullness of his joy—it was too late; the cross had overcome Christ himself; it was Christ crucified that people continued to see and teach. And thus it is that religion came to plunge the world into gloom.”

Pretexts: Reflections on Literature and Morality (1964)

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

Portraits and Aphorisms (1903), Pretexts

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

Entry for November 23, 1940
Journals 1889-1949

“The only really Christian art is that which, like St. Francis, does not fear being wedded to poverty. This rises far above art-as-ornament.”

“An Unprejudiced Mind,” p. 317
Pretexts: Reflections on Literature and Morality (1964)

“At times it seems to me that I am living my life backwards, 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.”

“An Unprejudiced Mind,” pp. 319-320
Pretexts: Reflections on Literature and Morality (1964)

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

“An Unprejudiced Mind,” pp. 311-312
Pretexts: Reflections on Literature and Morality (1964)

“A straight path never leads anywhere except to the objective.”

The Journals of André Gide: 1914-1927, A.A. Knopf, 1951, p. 313
Journals 1889-1949

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

“An Unprejudiced Mind,” p. 346
Pretexts: Reflections on Literature and Morality (1964)

“The most important things to say are those which often I did not think necessary for me to say — because they were too obvious.”

Entry for August 23, 1926
Journals 1889-1949

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

“An Unprejudiced Mind,” p. 317
Pretexts: Reflections on Literature and Morality (1964)

“Pay attention only to the form; emotion will come spontaneously to inhabit it. A perfect dwelling always finds an inhabitant. The artist’s business is to build the dwelling; as for the inhabitant, it is up to the reader to provide him.”

“Characters,” p. 299
Pretexts: Reflections on Literature and Morality (1964)

“The artist who is after success lets himself be influenced by the public. Generally such an artist contributes nothing new, for the public acclaims only what it already knows, what it recognizes.”

“Characters,” p. 306
Pretexts: Reflections on Literature and Morality (1964)

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

“An Unprejudiced Mind,” p. 315
Pretexts: Reflections on Literature and Morality (1964)

“Families, I hate you! Shut-in homes, closed doors, jealous possessions of happiness.”

Familles, je vous hais! foyers clos; portes refermées; possessions jalouses du bonheur.
Les Nourritures Terrestres (1897), book IV

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

André Gide book The Immoralist

Savoir se libérer n'est rien; l'ardu, c'est savoir être libre. <br class="br">The Immoralist, Chapter 1 http://books.google.com/books?id=MPmRAAAAIAAJ&q=%22Savoir+se+lib%C3%A9rer+n'est+rien+l'ardu+c'est+savoir+%C3%AAtre+libre%22&jtp=17#v=onepage (1902) <br class="br">The Immoralist (1902)

“We call “happiness” a certain set of circumstances that makes joy possible. But we call joy that state of mind and emotions that needs nothing to feel happy.”

“An Unprejudiced Mind,” p. 326
Pretexts: Reflections on Literature and Morality (1964)