André Gide

Old hands soil, it seems, what they caress; but they too have their beauty when they are joined in prayer. Young hands are made for caresses and the

The most beautiful things are those that madness prompts and reason writes.

Enduring fame is promised only to those writers who can offer to successive generations a substance constantly renewed; for every generation arrives upon the scene with its own particular hunger.

It is easier to lead men to combat and to stir up their passions than to temper them and urge them to the patient labors of peace.

The anxiety we have for the figure we cut, for our personage, is constantly cropping out. We are showing off and are often more concerned with making a display than with living. Whoever feels observed observes himself.

Sadness is almost never anything but a form of fatigue.

Each of us really understands in others only those feelings he is capable of producing himself.

Understanding is the beginning of approving.

Atheism. There is not a single exalting and emancipating influence that does not in turn become inhibitory.

To love the truth is to refuse to let oneself be saddened by it.

No theory is good except on condition that one use it to go beyond.

To be sure, theory is useful. But without warmth of heart and without love it bruises the very ones it claims to save.

The individual never asserts himself more than when he forgets himself.

Solitude is bearable only with God.

A straight path never leads anywhere except to the objective.

How much more sensuality invites to art than does sentimentality.

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

The most beaten paths are certainly the surest; but do not hope to scare up much game on them.

I should like to enjoy this summer flower by flower, as if it were to be the last one for me.

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

The very act of sacrifice magnifies the one who sacrifices himself to the point where his sacrifice is much more costly to humanity than would have been

Though a revolution may call itself “national,” it always marks the victory of a single party.

Never have I been able to settle in life. Always seated askew, as if on the arm of a chair; ready to get up, to leave.

Man’s responsibility increases as that of the gods decreases.

What eludes logic is the most precious element in us, and one can draw nothing from a syllogism that the mind has not put there in advance.

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

Most quarrels amplify a misunderstanding.

When you have nothing to say, or to hide, there is no need to be prudent.

The public always prefers to be reassured. There are those whose job this is. There are only too many.

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

Most often it happens that one attributes to others only the feelings of which one is capable oneself.

An opinion, though it is original, does not necessarily differ from the accepted opinion; the important thing is that it does not try to conform to it.

Oh, would that my mind could let fall its dead ideas, as the tree does its withered leaves! And without too many regrets, if possible! Those from which the sap has withdrawn. But, good Lord, what beautiful colors!

It is not becoming to lay to virtue the weariness of old age.

The true return to nature is the definitive return to the elements—death.

Without mysticism man can achieve nothing great.