André Gide Quotes

Nos actes s'attachent a nous comme sa lueur au phosphore. Ils nous consument, il est vrai, mais il nous font notre splendeur.

"One must allow other people to be right," he used to say when he was insulted, "It consoles them for not being anything else."

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

I can't expect others to share my virtues. It's good enough for me if they share my vices.

The most beaten paths are certainly the surest, but do not hope to start much game on them.

"Oh! tout ce que nous n'avons point fait et que pourtant nous aurions pu faire...penseront-ils, sur le point de quitter la vie. - Tout ce que nous aurions dû faire et que pourtant nous n'avons point fait! par souci des considérants, par temporisation, par paresse, et pour s'être trop dit: "Bah! nous aurons toujours le temps." Pour n'avoir pas saisi le chaque jour irremplaçable, l'irretrouvable chaque instant. Pour avoir remis à plus tard la décision, l'effort, l'étreinte...
L'heure qui passe est bien passée?
-Oh! toi qui viendras, penseront-ils, sois plus habile: Saisis l'instant!"

Words are traitors, for language tends to impose more logic than there is logic in life, and that the most precious in us is that which remains unexpressed.

Je voudrais mourir à présent, vite, avant d'avoir compris de nouveau que je suis seule.

toda alegría es semejante al maná del desierto, que se corrompe de un día a otro; es semejante al agua de la fuente Ameles que, según cuenta Platón, no podía conservarse en ningún vaso... ¡Que cada instante se lleve lo que nos trajo!

I am still clumsy; I should aim to be clumsy only when I wish to be. I must learn to keep silent… I must learn to take myself seriously; and not to hold any smug opinion of myself. To have more mobile eyes and a less mobile face. To keep a straight face when I make a joke. Not to applaud every joke made by others. Not to show the same colorless geniality toward everyone. To disconcert at the right moment by keeping a poker face. Especially never to praise two people in the same way, but rather to keep toward each individual a distinct manner from which I would never deviate without intending to.

Si le grain de blé qui est tombé en terre ne meurt, il reste seul ; mais, s'il meurt, il porte beaucoup de fruit. Celui qui aime sa vie la perdra, et celui qui hait sa vie dans ce monde la conservera pour la vie éternelle.

True kindness presupposes the faculty of imagining as one's own the suffering and joys of others.

...que toute émotion sache te devenir une ivresse. Si ce que tu manges ne te grise pas, c'est que tu n'avais pas assez faim.

The secret seemed to me much more mysterious than that; it was the secret, I thought, of one who had known death; for I moved a stranger among ordinary people, like a man who has risen from the grave, and at first I merely felt rather painfully out of my element; but soon I became aware of a very different feeling.
Was it pride now? Perhaps; but at any rate there was no trace of vanity mixed with it. It was rather, for the first time, the consciousness of my own worth. What separated me - distinguished me - from other people was crucial; what no one said, what no one could say but myself, that was my task to say.

Dare to be yourself. I must underline that in my head too.

Don’t ever do anything through affectation or to make people like you or through imitation or for the pleasure of contradicting.