Quotes from Andre Gide

Envying another man's happiness is madness; you wouldn't know what to do with it if you had it.

A man thinks he owns things, and it is he who is owned

It is only through restraint that man can manage not to suppress himself.

Generally among intelligent people are found nothing but paralytics and among men of action nothing but fools.

Man is extraordinarily clever in preventing himself from being happy; it would seem that the less able he is to endure misfortune the more apt he is to attach himself to it.

Man's first and greatest victory must be won against the gods.

The loveliest creations of men are persistently painful. What would be the description of happiness? Nothing, except what prepares and then what destroys it.

Man: The most complex of beings, and thus the most dependent of beings. On all that made you up, you depend.

True eloquence forgoes eloquence.

The most gifted natures are perhaps also the most trembling.

It is easier to lead men to combat, stirring up their passion, than to restrain them and direct them toward the patient labors of peace.

The thing I am most aware of is my limits. And this is natural; for I never, or almost never, occupy the middle of my cage; my whole being surges toward the bars.

By the time a philospher answers a question weve usually forgotten what was asked.

Art is a collaboration between God and the artist, and the less the artist does the better.

God lies ahead. I convince myself and constantly repeat to myself that: He depends on us. It is through us that God is achieved.

Solitude is bearable only with God.

Whither should we aim if not towards God?

The individual person is more interesting than people in general; he and not they is the one whom God created in His image.

God depends on us. It is through us that God is achieved.

Art begins with resistance - at the point where resistance is overcome. No human masterpiece has ever been created without great labor.

The great artist is one whom constraint exalts, for whom the obstacle is a springboard.

We call "happiness" a certain set of circumstances that makes joy possible. But we call joy that state of mind and emotions that needs nothing to feel happy.

Nothing blocks happiness like happiness remembered.

What would be the description of happines? Nothing, except what prepares and then what destroys it, can be told.