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
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.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The struggle to be truly understood by others is a source of inner pain and isolation.
In this quote, Andre Gide expresses the profound anguish that arises from the human desire for understanding and connection. While understanding others can be seen as a passive act, the deeper pain comes from the inability to convey one's own feelings and experiences, leading to feelings of isolation and despair. The struggle involves not just expressing oneself through words and gestures, but the inherent challenge of bridging the gap between one’s inner soul and the perceptions of others.
Themes
UnderstandingAnguishConnectionIsolationCommunication
In practice
Example use cases
In a personal development seminar about effective communication.
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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