Andre Gide
Andre Gide
André Paul Guillaume Gidewas a French author and winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1947 "for his comprehensive and artistically significant writings, in which human problems and conditions have been presented with a fearless love of truth and keen psychological insight". Gide's career ranged from its beginnings in the symbolist movement, to the advent of anticolonialism between the two World Wars...
NationalityFrench
ProfessionAutobiographer
Date of Birth22 November 1869
CountryFrance
Though a revolution may call itself "national," it always marks the victory of a single party.
The world will be saved by one or two people.
The public always prefers to be reassured. There are those whose job this is. There are only too many.
An opinion, though it is original, does not necessarily differ from the accepted opinion; the important thing is that it does not try to conform to it.
Fish die belly upward, and rise to the surface. Its their way of falling.
Nothing excellent can be done without leisure.
Complete possession is proved only by giving. All you are unable to give possesses you.
Man's responsibility increases as that of the gods decreases.
Fear of ridicule begets the worst cowardice.
Through loyalty to the past, our mind refuses to realize that tomorrow's joy is possible only if today's makes way for it; that each wave owes the beauty of its line only to the withdrawal of the preceding one.
Often with good sentiments we produce bad literature.
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.
A work of art is an exaggeration.
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.