Andre Gide

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.

The color of truth is gray.

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

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.

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

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

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

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.

Be faithful to that which exists within yourself.

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

Nothing prevents happiness like the memory of happiness.

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

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

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

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

Old hands soil, it seems, whatever they caress, but they too have their beauty when they are joined in prayer. Young hands were made for caresses and the sheathing of love. It is a pity to make them join too soon.

Through loyalty to the past, our mind refuses to realize that tomorrow's joy is possible only if today's makes way for it that each wave owes the beauty of its line only to the withdrawal of the preceding one.

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

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

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