André Gide

“Be faithful to that which exists within yourself.”

“What would there be in a story of happiness? Only what prepares it, only what destroys it can be told.”

“It is better to be hated for what you are than to be loved for what you are not.”

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

“Nothing prevents happiness like the memory of happiness.”

“One does not discover new lands without consenting to lose sight of the shore for a very long time.”

“To read a writer is for me not merely to get an idea of what he says, but to go off with him and travel in his company.”

“It is unthinkable for a Frenchman to arrive at middle age without having syphilis and the Cross of the Legion of Honor.”

“The want of logic annoys. Too much logic bores. Life eludes logic, and everything that logic alone constructs remains artificial and forced.”

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

“There is no prejudice that the work of art does not finally overcome.”

“The sole art that suits me is that which, rising from unrest, tends toward serenity.”

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

“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.”

“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.”

“Work and struggle and never accept an evil that you can change.”

“Everything has been said before, but since nobody listens we have to keep going back and beginning all over again.”

“There are very few monsters who warrant the fear we have of them.”

“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.”

“'Therefore' is a word the poet must not know.”

“Great authors are admirable in this respect: in every generation they make for disagreement. Through them we become aware of our differences.”

“Believe those who are seeking the truth. Doubt those who find it.”

“The color of truth is gray.”

“No theory is good unless it permits, not rest, but the greatest work. No theory is good except on condition that one use it to go on beyond.”