Andre Gide Quotes

“I intend to bring you strength, joy, courage, perspicacity, defiance.”
― André Gide

“To acquire the full consciousness of self is to know oneself so different from others that no longer feels allied with men except by purely animal contacts: nevertheless, among souls of this degree, there is an ideal fraternity based on differences,--while society fraternity is based on resemblances.
The full consciousness of self can be called originality of soul, -and all this is said only to point out the group of rare beings to which Andre Gide belongs.
The misfortune of these beings, when they express themselves, is that they do it with such odd gestures that men fear to approach them; their life of social contacts must often revolve in the brief circle of ideal fraternities; or, when the mob consents to admit such souls, it is as curiosities or museum objects. Their glory is, finally, to be loved from afar & almost understood, as parchments are seen & read above sealed cases.”
― Remy de Gourmont, The Book of Masks

“What would be the description of happines? Nothing, except what prepares and then what destroys it, can be told.”
― André Gide

“I am neither sad nor cheerful; the air here fills
one with a kind of vague excitement and induces a
state as far removed from cheerfulness as it is from
sorrow; perhaps it is happiness.”
― andre gide

“My happiness is made of fervour. Through the medium of all things without distinction, I have passionately worshipped”
― André Gide, Les Nourritures terrestres: suivi de Les nouvelles nourritures