Quotes & anectdotes from
the wise,
the foolish,
the courageous &
the drunk

Andre Gide Novelist

  • Gender: Male
  • Citizenship: France
  • Born: Nov 22, 1869
  • Died: Feb 19, 1951

André Paul Guillaume Gide was 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.

Known for his fiction as well as his autobiographical works, Gide exposes to public view the conflict and eventual reconciliation of the two sides of his personality, split apart by a straitlaced education and a narrow social moralism. Gide's work can be seen as an investigation of freedom and empowerment in the face of moralistic and puritanical constraints, and centres on his continuous effort to achieve intellectual honesty. His self-exploratory texts reflect his search of how to be fully oneself, even to the point of owning one's sexual nature, without at the same time betraying one's values. His political activity is informed by the same ethos, as suggested by his repudiation of communism after his 1936 voyage to the USSR.

Be faithful to that which exists within yourself.

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

Nothing prevents happiness like the memory of happiness.

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

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

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

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

The color of truth is gray.

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

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

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.

Man cannot discover new oceans unless he has the courage to lose sight of the shore.

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

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.

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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