25 Powerful And Inspiring Andre Gide Quotes
“Andre Gide” by “Eugenio Hansen, OFS“, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0
The French author André Paul Guillaume Gide was born in Paris, France, on 22nd November 1869. His career spanned from the symbolist movement to the advent of anticolonialism between the two World Wars. He won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1947. His obituary in The New York Times at the time of his death referred to him as “France’s greatest contemporary author” and “famous literary critics’ choice for the greatest French writer of the century.”
André Gide is considered one of the greatest French writers of all time. His work ranged from novels to essays, and he was a literary critic and philosopher. We have collected these Andre Gide quotes that are powerful and have an inspiring message.
Andre Gide Quotes
“Believe those who are seeking the truth; doubt those who find it.”
ANDRE GIDE
SOURCE: SO BE IT (1960)
“The most important things to say are those which often I did not think necessary for me to say — because they were too obvious.“
ANDRE GIDE
“Generally among intelligent people are found nothing but paralytics and among men of action nothing but fools.“
ANDRE GIDE
SOURCE: REFLECTIONS ON LITERATURE AND MORALITY
“Art begins with resistance — at the point where resistance is overcome. No human masterpiece has ever been created without great labour.”
ANDRE GIDE
SOURCE: POÉTIQUE
“From the satisfaction of desire there may arise, accompanying joy and as it were sheltering behind it, something not unlike despair.“
ANDRE GIDE
SOURCE: THE COUNTERFEITERS
SOURCE: REFLECTIONS ON LITERATURE AND MORALITY
“One must allow others to be right, it consoles them for not being anything else.“
ANDRE GIDE
SOURCE: THE IMMORALIST
“He who wants a rose must respect her thorn.“
ANDRE GIDE
“Nothing is more fatal to happiness than the remembrance of happiness.“
ANDRE GIDE
SOURCE: THE IMMORALIST
“O my dearest and most lovable thought, why should I try further to legitimize your birth?”
ANDRE GIDE
SOURCE: REFLECTIONS ON LITERATURE AND MORALITY
“One can’t correct what one does. It’s the power of revising that makes writing such a colourless affair.“
ANDRE GIDE
SOURCE: THE VATICAN CELLARS
SOURCE: THE IMMORALIST
“Art is a collaboration between God and the artist, and the less the artist does the better.”
ANDRE GIDE
SOURCE: AUTUMN LEAVES
“A straight path never leads anywhere except to the objective.“
ANDRE GIDE
SOURCE: THE JOURNALS OF ANDRÉ GIDE
“We call happiness a certain set of circumstances that makes joy possible. But we call joy that state of mind and emotions that needs nothing to feel happy.“
ANDRE GIDE
SOURCE: REFLECTIONS ON LITERATURE AND MORALITY
“Man’s responsibility increases as that of the gods decreases.“
ANDRE GIDE
SOURCE: THE JOURNALS OF ANDRÉ GIDE
“Sadness is almost never anything but a form of fatigue.“
ANDRE GIDE
SOURCE: THE JOURNALS OF ANDRÉ GIDE
SOURCE: MARSHLANDS AND PROMETHEUS MISBOUND
“To know how to free oneself is nothing; the arduous thing is to know what to do with one’s freedom.”
ANDRE GIDE
SOURCE: L’IMMORALISTE
“There are many things that seem impossible only so long as one does not attempt them.“
ANDRE GIDE
SOURCE: SI LE GRAIN NE MEURT
“Wisdom comes not from reason but from love.”
ANDRE GIDE
SOURCE: LES NOURRITURES TERRESTRES
“The true hypocrite is the one who ceases to perceive his deception, the one who lies with sincerity.”
ANDRE GIDE
SOURCE: THE COUNTERFEITERS
“Nothing is good for everyone, but only relatively to some people.“
ANDRE GIDE
SOURCE: THE COUNTERFEITERS
“The public always prefers to be reassured. There are those whose job this is. There are only too many.“
ANDRE GIDE
SOURCE: THE COUNTERFEITERS
Daniel Moutote contends that Gide’s work is distinctively modern because each volume he wrote posed a challenge to what had come before, and what might follow.
That’s a wrap! These are our favourite Andre Gide quotes. We hope you also got something to take away from these Andre Gide quotes and learn more about his personality. You can also check out these 30 Most Popular Brennan Manning Quotes About Jesus & More!
The Gide quotes were genius. I’m going to leave two: “I have only one goal in life, and that is to have more than one goal in life.” “To each his zone.” Donald Hutnick