“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.”

—  André Gide

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

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "Pay attention only to the form; emotion will come spontaneously to inhabit it. A perfect dwelling always finds an inhab…" by André Gide?
André Gide photo
André Gide 74
French novelist and essayist 1869–1951

Related quotes

Johannes Kepler photo
Kevin Kelly photo

“People will inhabit places, but increasingly the economy inhabits a space.”

Kevin Kelly (1952) American author and editor

Out of Control: The New Biology of Machines, Social Systems and the Economic World (1995), New Rules for the New Economy: 10 Radical Strategies for a Connected World (1999)

Jorge Majfud photo

“We inhabit the cities of the dead and their ideas inhabit us every day.”

Jorge Majfud (1969) Uruguayan-American writer

La generación FaceNoBook, Revista Alma Mater, La Habana (July 2012), p. 5

Muhammad al-Mahdi photo

“Indeed, I am a safeguard to the inhabitants of earth as the stars are safeguards to the inhabitants of heaven.”

Muhammad al-Mahdi (869–941) 12th and last Imam in Twelver Shia Islam

Majlisi, Bihārul Anwār, vol.78 p. 380
Religious-based Quotes

Thomas Carlyle photo

“If they be inhabited, what a scope for misery and folly; if they be na inhabited, what a waste of space.”

Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881) Scottish philosopher, satirical writer, essayist, historian and teacher

On other stars
Attributed by John Burroughs on the first page of his 1920 book Accepting The Universe
Attributed by Carl Sagan at a November 20, 1972 symposium on "Life Beyond Earth and the Mind of Man", held at Boston University
[Berendzen, Richard, ed., Life Beyond Earth and the Mind of Man, 1973, NASA Scientific and Technical Information Office, Washington, DC, LCCN 73-600150]
"Life Beyond Earth and the Mind of Man 1975", Google Video, c. 0:02:50, 2006-09-11 http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-8949469271181885482&q=owner%3Anara+type%3Anasa, Edited version of symposium, released by National Archives, under Google Video partnership http://www.archives.gov/google/.
Attributed
Variant: A sad spectacle. If they be inhabited, what a scope for misery and folly. It they be not inhabited, what a waste of space.

Frederick Buechner photo
J. Howard Moore photo
James Hamilton photo

“Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly. In its doctrinal largeness let it inhabit your convictions, and in its Divine lovingness let it be infused into your spirit, and let its lifesome energy inspire your character.”

James Hamilton (1814–1867) Scottish minister and a prolific author of religious tracts

Source: Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), P. 90.

Emil M. Cioran photo

“One does not inhabit a country; one inhabits a language. That is our country, our fatherland — and no other.”

Emil M. Cioran (1911–1995) Romanian philosopher and essayist

Variant translation: We inhabit a language rather than a country.
Anathemas and Admirations (1987)

Related topics