Andre Gide Quotes (74 Quotes)

God depends on us. It is through us that God is achieved.

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

He who makes great demands upon himself is naturally inclined to make great demands upon others

Nothing prevents happiness like the memory of happiness.

The belief that becomes truth for me - is that which allows me the best use of my strength, the best means of putting my virtues into action.

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

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.

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

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

L'acte gratuite. The unmotivated action.

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.

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.

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.

There are admirable potentialities in every human being. Believe in your strength and your youth. Learn to repeat endlessly to yourself 'It all depends on me.'

Families, I hate you Shut-in homes, closed doors, jealous possessors of happiness

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

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

Most quarrels amplify a misunderstanding.

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

To what a degree the same past can leave different marks - and especially admit of different interpretations.

The individual never asserts himself more than when he forgets himself

Whoever starts out toward the unknown must consent to venture alone

The work of art is the exaggeration of an idea.

A straight path never leads anywhere except to the objective.