Andre Gide

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

An artist cannot get along without a public; and when the public is absent, what does he do? He invents it, and turning his back on his age, he looks toward the future for what the present denies.

Believe those who seek the truth, doubt those who find it; doubt all, but do not doubt yourself.

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

The true hypocrite is the one who ceases to perceive his deception, the one who lies with sincerity.

One doesn't discover new lands without consenting to lose sight, for a very long time, of the shore.

What thwarts us and demands of us the greatest effort is also what can teach us most.

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.

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

Man is more interesting than men. God made him and not them in his image. Each one is more precious than all.

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.

The novelist does not long to see the_x000D_ lion eat grass. He realizes that one and_x000D_ the same God created the wolf and the_x000D_ lamb, then smiled, “seeing that his_x000D_ work was good.”

A caterpillar who seeks to know himself would never become a butterfly

It is better to fail at your own life than to succeed at someone else's.

To understand is nothing, but to be understood-that is the problem and the source of anguish. The soul throbs and would have the other know-but can not and feels isolated. Then come gestures, words, awkward explanations and material symbols for imponderable outbursts of feeling-and the soul despairs.

The greatest intelligence is precisely the one that suffers the most from its own limitations.

We no longer admit any other truth than that which is expedient; for there is no worse error than the truth that may weaken the arm that is fighting.

When intelligent people pride themselves on not understanding, it is quite natural they should succeed better than fools.

We should enjoy this summer, flower by flower, as if it were to be the last one we’ll see.

Please do not understand me too quickly.