Life never presents us with anything which may not be looked upon as a fresh starting point, no less than as a termination.
Andre GideRead
When intelligent people pride themselves on not understanding, it is quite natural they should succeed better than fools.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Intelligent individuals may choose to ignore certain complexities, leading to greater success than those who misunderstand them.
This quote by Andre Gide suggests that those who possess intelligence might benefit from a deliberate choice to avoid overthinking or misunderstanding situations. In contrast, individuals who lack understanding or insight may struggle to navigate challenges effectively. Hence, the ability to overlook complexities can be a form of strength, suggesting that wisdom often involves knowing what not to engage with.
Themes
IntelligenceUnderstandingSuccessWisdomKnowledge
In practice
Example use cases
During a team meeting, I referenced this quote to encourage strategic thinking.
More from Andre Gide
All quotes βDo not do what someone else could do as well as you. Do not say, do not write what someone else could say, could write as well as you. Care for nothing in yourself but what you feel exists nowhere else. And, out of yourself create, impatiently or patiently, the most irreplaceable of beings.
Andre GideRead
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.
Andre GideRead
Through fear of resembling one another, through horror of having to submit, through uncertainty as well, through skepticism and complexity, there is a multitude of individual little beliefs for the triumph of strange little individuals.
Andre GideRead
It is the special quality of love not to be able to remain stationary, to be obliged to increase under pain of diminishing.
Andre GideRead
It is with noble sentiments that bad literature gets written.
Andre GideRead
Similar quotes
Thus we may know that there are five essentials for victory: He will win who knows when to fight and when not to fight. He will win who knows how to handle both superior and inferior forces. He will win whose army is animated by the same spirit throughout all its ranks. He will win who, prepared himself, waits to take the enemy unprepared. He will win who has military capacity and is not interfered with by the sovereign.
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The person giving the advice returns the confidence placed in him with a disinterested eagerness... and he is usually guided only by his own interest or reputation.
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Ignorance is not bliss. Ignorance is poverty. Ignorance is devastation. Ignorance is tragedy. And ignorance is illness. It all stems from ignorance.
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I understand aggressiveness in only one way: being prepared to hurt yourself, not someone else.
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The cynics are right nine times out of ten.
H. L. MenckenRead
Proverbs often contradict one another, as any reader soon discovers. The sagacity that advises us to look before we leap promptly warns us that if we hesitate we are lost; that absence makes the heart grow fonder, but out of sight, out of mind.
Leo RostenRead