Quotes from Andre Gide

Oh, would that my mind could let fall its dead ideas, as the tree does its withered leaves!

Nothing prevents happiness like the memory of happiness.

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

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

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.

Nothing is so silly as the expression of a man who is being complimented.

From the satisfaction of desire there may arise, accompanying joy and as it were sheltering behind it, something not unlike despair.

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.

It is easier to lead men to combat, stirring up their passions, than to restrain them and direct them toward the patient labors of peace.

"Therefore" is a word the poet must not know.

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

The young people who come to me in the hope of hearing me utter a few memorable maxims are quite disappointed. Aphorisms are not my forte, I say nothing but banalities.... I listen to them and they go away delighted.

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.

Great authors are admirable in this respect: in every generation they make for disagreement. Through them we become aware of our differences.

There is no prejudice that the work of art does not finally overcome.

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.

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; written as well, do not write it. Be faithful to that which exists nowhere but in yourself—and thus make yourself indispensable.

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

In order to judge properly, one must get away somewhat from what one is judging, after having loved it. This is true of countries, of persons, and of oneself.

I have my own virtue, which I am constantly cultivating and refining by teaching myself not to tolerate in me or my surroundings anything but the exquisite.

Are you then unable to recognize unless it has the same sound as yours?

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

Most quarrels amplify a misunderstanding.

The abominable effort to take one's sins with one to paradise.