André Gide1869–1951Man cannot discover new oceans unless he has the courage to lose sight of the shore.
One doesn’t discover new lands without consenting to lose sight, for a very long time, of the shore.Art is a collaboration between God and the artist, and the less the artist does, the better.
Andre Gide in: timothy James Brearton The Millionaire Rig Veda, Lulu.com, p. 40There are very few monsters who warrant the fear we have of them.
- The Immoralist (1902), p. 159
It is better to be hated for what you are than to be loved for what you are not.
Autumn Leaves, Philosophical eLibrary, 2012, (Feuillets d’automne, 1941, trans. Jeanine Parisier Plottel)There is no feeling so simple that it is not immediately complicated and distorted by introspection.
“An Unprejudiced Mind,” p. 317- “An Unprejudiced Mind,” p. 311
- “An Unprejudiced Mind,” pp. 311-312
- “An Unprejudiced Mind,” p. 326
- Literature and Ethics, entry for 1901
The sole art that suits me is that which, rising from unrest, tends toward serenity.
Journal, entry for 23 November 1940There are many things that seem impossible only so long as one does not attempt them.
Si le grain ne meurt [If It Die] (1924), ch. IIITo know how to free oneself is nothing; the arduous thing is to know what to do with one’s freedom.
The Immoralist, Chapter 1 (1902)
