Andre Gide

“The most beautiful things are those that madness prompts and reason writes.”

“What another would have done as well as you, do not do it. What another would have said as well as you, do not say it; what another would have written as well, do not write it. Be faithful to that which exists nowhere but in yourself-and thus make yourself indispensable.”

“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.”

“The color of truth is gray.”

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

“It is good to follow one's own bent, so long as it leads upward.”

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

“I owe much to my friends; but, all things considered, it strikes me that I owe even more to my enemies. The real person springs life under a sting even better than under a caress.”

“To what a degree the same past can leave different marks - and especially admit of different interpretations.”

“Man is more interesting than men. God made him and not them in his image. Each one is more precious than all.”

“God depends on us. It is through us that God is achieved.”

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

“Welcome anything that comes to you, but do not long for anything else.”

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

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

“A straight path never leads anywhere except to the objective.”

“The most gifted natures are perhaps also the most trembling.”

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

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

“Most quarrels amplify a misunderstanding.”