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
Nothing prevents happiness like the memory of happiness.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Nostalgia for past happiness can hinder our present joy.
This quote by Andre Gide suggests that clinging to fond memories of happiness can obstruct our ability to experience joy in the present. By focusing on what was, rather than embracing what is currently, we may inadvertently create a barrier to our own happiness, preventing us from appreciating the present moment.
Themes
HappinessMemoryPresentJoyNostalgia
In practice
Example use cases
In a motivational speech about living in the now.
More from Andre Gide
All quotes →Do 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
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