Quotes by Andre Gide

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

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

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

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

"Most quarrels amplify a misunderstanding."

"It is better to be hated for what you are than to be loved for something you are not."

"Be faithful to that which exists within yourself."

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

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

"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."

"Not everyone can be an orphan."

"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."

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

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

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

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

"What would there be in a story of happiness? Only what prepares it, only what destroys it can be told."

"There are very few monsters who warrant the fear we have of them."

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

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

"The color of truth is gray."

"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."

"Art begins with resistance - at the point where resistance is overcome. No human masterpiece has ever been created without great labor."

"A straight path never leads anywhere except to the objective."

"Believe those who are seeking the truth. Doubt those who find it."

"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."

"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."

"Welcome anything that comes to you, but do not long for anything else."

"Nothing prevents happiness like the memory of happiness."

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

"Work and struggle and never accept an evil that you can change."

"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."

"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."

"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."

"One does not discover new lands without consenting to lose sight of the shore for a very long time."

"It is only in adventure that some people succeed in knowing themselves - in finding themselves."