Quotes by Gide, Andre

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

Gide, Andre on empathy   

"Complete possession is proved only by giving. All you are unable to give possesses you."

Gide, Andre on giving
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"A straight path never leads anywhere except to the objective."

Gide, Andre on goals
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"It is better to be hated for what you are than to be loved for what you are not."

Gide, Andre on hatred
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"Man is more interesting than men. God made him and not them in his image. Each one is more precious than all."

Gide, Andre on humankind   

"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."

Gide, Andre on ideas   

"The most decisive actions of our life -- I mean those that are most likely to decide the whole course of our future -- are, more often than not, unconsidered."

Gide, Andre on impulse
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"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."

Gide, Andre on knowledge   

"Most quarrels amplify a misunderstanding."

Gide, Andre on argument   

"Only those things are beautiful which are inspired by madness and written by reason."

Gide, Andre on literature
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"Not everyone can be an orphan."

Gide, Andre on orphan   

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

Gide, Andre on paradise   

"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."

Gide, Andre on peace
3 fans of this quote   

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

Gide, Andre on art   

"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."

Gide, Andre on prayer   

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

Gide, Andre on prejudice   

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

Gide, Andre on purpose
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"Sin is whatever obscures the soul."

Gide, Andre on sin   

"Man cannot discover new oceans unless he has the courage to lose sight of the shore."

Gide, Andre on action
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"The most gifted natures are perhaps also the most trembling."

Gide, Andre on talent   

"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."

Gide, Andre on theory   

"Believe those who are seeking truth, doubt those who find it."

Gide, Andre on truth
8 fans of this quote   

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

Gide, Andre on compliments   

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

Gide, Andre on death
3 fans of this quote   

"One doesn’t discover new lands without losing sight of the shore."

Gide, Andre on exploration quotes