385 Quotes by Andre Gide

Each of us really understands in others only those feelings he is capable of producing himself.

It is only in adventure that some people succeed in knowing themselves - in finding themselves.

True kindness presupposes the faculty of imagining as one's own the suffering and joys of others.

Oh, would that my mind could let fall its dead ideas, as the tree does its withered leaves! And without too many regrets, if possible! Those from which the sap has withdrawn. But, good Lord, what beautiful colors!

A straight path never leads anywhere except to the objective.

It is the special quality of love not to be able to remain stationary, to be obliged to increase under pain of diminishing....

We call "happiness" a certain set of circumstances that makes joy possible. But we call joy that state of mind and emotions that needs nothing to feel happy.

Know thyself. A maxim as pernicious as it is ugly. Whoever studies himself arrest his own development. A caterpillar who seeks to know himself would never become a butterfly.

The truth is, I hoped the cure would dislike me. I tried to think of disagreeable things to say to him -- I could hit on nothing that wasn't charming. It's wonderful how hard I find it not to be fascinating.