Quotes from Andre Gide

I had forgotten I was alone; I sat there, waiting for nothing, oblivious to the time.

No encounter occured that day, and I was glad of it; I took out of my pocket a little Homer I had not opened since leaving Marseilles, reread three lines of the Odyssey, learned them by heart; then, finding sufficient sustenance in their rhythm and reveling in them at leisure, I closed the book and remained, trembling, more alive than I had thought possible, my mind numb with happiness.

Long only for what you have.

When I was younger, I used to make resolutions which imagined were virtuous. I was less anxious to be what I was, than to become what I wished to be. Now, I am not far from thinking that in irresolution lies the secret of not growing old.

Je ne me sens jamais vivre plus intensément que quand je m'échappe à moi-même pour devenir n'importe qui.

El hombre no puede descubrir nuevos océanos a menos que tenga el coraje de perder de vista la costa.

I have a horror of rest; possessions encourage one to indulge in it, and there's nothing like security for making one fall asleep; I like life well enough to live it awake, and so, in the very midst of my riches, I maintain the sensation of a state of precariousness, by which means I aggravate, or at any rate intensify, my life. I will not say I like danger, but I like life to be hazardous, and I want it to demand at every moment the whole of my courage, my happiness, my health...

When I got back to Marceline, I did not conceal from her how tedious I found all these acquaintances. They are all alike, I said to her. When I talk to one, I feel as if I were talking to the whole lot. But, my dear, said Marceline, you can't expect each of them to be different from the others. The greater their likeness to each other, the more unlike they are to me.

I hated the homes, the families, all the places where man thinks to find rest.

Je suis un être de dialogue ; tout en moi combat et se contredit. Les Mémoires ne sont jamais qu'à demi sincères, si grand que soit le souci de vérité : tout est toujours plus compliqué qu'on ne le dit. Peut-être même approche-t-on de plus près la vérité dans le roman.

Que chaque attente, en toi, ne soit même pas un désir, mais simplement une disposition à l'accueil. Attends tout ce qui vient à toi, mais ne désire que ce qui vient à toi. Ne désire que ce que tu as.

Ne désire jamais, Nathanaël, regoûter les eaux du passé...Ne cherche pas, dans l'avenir, à retrouver jamais le passé. Saisis de chaque instant la nouveauté irressemblable et ne prépare pas tes joies, ou sache qu'en son lieu préparé te surprendra une joie autre.

Jette mon livre; dis-toi bien que ce n'est là qu'une des mille postures possibles en face de la vie. Cherche la tienne. Ce qu'un autre aurait aussi bien fait que toi, ne le fais pas. Ce qu'un autre aurait aussi bien dit que toi, ne le dis pas, -- aussi bien écrit que toi, ne l'écris pas. Ne t'attache en toi qu'à ce que tu sens qui n'est nulle part ailleurs qu'en toi-même, et crée de toi, impatiemment ou patiemment, ah! le plus irremplaçable des êtres.

The things one feels are different about oneself are the things that are rare, that give each person their value - and these are the things they try to repress. The imitate and make out they love life!

Gradation; gradation; and then a sudden leap...

Seize from every moment it's unique novelty, and do not prepare your joys.

Les choses les plus belles sont celles que souffle la folie et qu'écrit la raison. Il faut demeurer entre les deux, tout près de la folie quand on rêve, tout prêt de la raison quand on écrit.

What was doubly disconcerting for me was that he showed such extraordinary and precocious insight in describing his own feelings that I felt he was making my own confession.

Que ta vision soit à chaque instant nouvelle. Le sage est celui qui s'étonne de tout.

Nothing thwarts happiness so much as the memory of happiness.

Nos actes s'attachent a nous comme sa lueur au phosphore. Ils nous consument, il est vrai, mais il nous font notre splendeur.

the facts of history all appeared to me like specimens in a herbarium, permanently dried, so that it was easy to forget they had once upon a time been juicy with sap and alive in the sun.

Better to be silent and thought a fool than to speak and remove all doubt.

The part in each of us that we feel is different from other people is just the part that is rare, the part that makes our special value - and that is the very thing people try to suppress. They go on imitating. And yet they think they love life