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
Understand that the only possession of any value is life.
Interpretation
Life is the most valuable thing we have, surpassing all material possessions.
In this quote, Andre Gide emphasizes that our existence and the experiences that come with it are of the utmost importance. All material possessions are ultimately transient and insignificant when compared to the richness of life itself, urging us to appreciate and prioritize our living experiences over material wealth.
In practice
In a motivational speech about personal growth and self-worth.
Life never presents us with anything which may not be looked upon as a fresh starting point, no less than as a termination.
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.
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.
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.
It is the special quality of love not to be able to remain stationary, to be obliged to increase under pain of diminishing.
It is with noble sentiments that bad literature gets written.
Let us have compassion for those under chastisement. Alas, who are we ourselves? Who am I and who are you? Whence do we come and is it quite certain that we did nothing before we were born? This earth is not without some resemblance to a gaol. Who knows but that man is a victim of divine justice? Look closely at life. It is so constituted that one senses punishment everywhere.
I began thinking about my skeleton, this solid, beautiful thing inside me that I would never see.
Fame is but an inscription on a grave, and glory the melancholy blazon on a coffin lid.
Nothing can tend so much to humble us before the mercy and justice of God as the consideration of His benefits and our own sins. Let us, then, consider what He has done for us, and what we have done against Him; let us call to mind our sins in detail, and His gracious benefits in like manner, remembering that whatever there is of good in us is not ours, but His, and then we need not be afraid of vainglory or of taking complacency in ourselves.
Storms rumble beyond the horizon, and the fires of heaven purge the earth. There is no salvation without destruction, no hope this side of death.
I am this space my body believes in.
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