Talk:André Gide

Boldface

Why are some of these quotes, or parts of some of these quotes in bold? I find it sort of distracting. -Sethmahoney 21:00, 17 Sep 2004 (UTC)

Since very early on, this has been allowed as an option for those who edit wikiquote, in addition to the selection process itself. I personally like it, and especially with large pages, which can otherwise be very bland, prefer to see pages that have some quotes emphasized on them, even when I might disagree with some or many of the quotes emphasized. I find that it gives one a larger number of visual reference points, and helps in the locating of even the un-emphasized quotes on larger pages.

In some browsers, at some settings it may be less appealing than in others, but I still prefer it to a large bland page. ( I usually use Safari or Firefox as a browser, with a default of a sans-serif font).

We all have different perspectives, and many different preferences, but there have so far been just a few disputes over what should be emphasized, or whether it should be permitted at all. I personally strongly prefer retaining the option, as a further way of providing information, especially when there can be very long lists of relatively uninteresting quotes on a page. ~ Moby 22:32, 17 Sep 2004 (UTC)

P.S. It is also very useful for emphasizing more famous portions of much larger quotations, so they are more easily found, as well as for entire quotes. This helps avoid duplication of quotes on pages. ~ Moby 22:38, 17 Sep 2004 (UTC)

Some sources

Some sources for unsourced quotes:

• There are very few monsters who warrant the fear we have of them.
• Il est bien peu de monstres qui méritent la peur que nous en avons.

-- Les Nouvelles Nourritures

• Dare to be yourself.
• Ose devenir ce que tu es

-- Les Nouvelles Nourritures

• Know thyself! A maxim as pernicious as it is ugly. Whoever observes himself arrests his own development. A caterpillar who wanted to know itself well would never become a butterfly.
• Connais-toi toi-même. Maxime aussi pernicieuse que laide. Quiconque s'observe arrête son développement. La chenille qui chercherait à « bien se connaître » ne deviendrait jamais papillon.

-- Les Nouvelles Nourritures

• There are admirable potentialities in every human being. Believe in your strength and your youth. Learn to repeat endlessly to yourself, 'It all depends on me'.
• Il y a d'admirables possibilités dans chaque être. Persuade-toi de ta force et de ta jeunesse. Sache te redire sans cesse : « Il ne tient qu'à moi. »

-- Les Nouvelles Nourritures

• What would there be in a story of happiness? Only what prepares it, only what destroys it can be told.
• Que serait le récit du bonheur ? Rien, que ce qui le prépare, puis ce qui le détruit, ne se raconte.

-- L'Immoraliste

MyXiLo 18:52, 9 March 2008 (UTC)

• Nothing prevents happiness like the memory of happiness.
• Rien n'empêche le bonheur comme le souvenir du bonheur

-- L'Immoraliste

Guest, 20:41, 18 December 2012

Unsourced

Wikiquote no longer allows unsourced quotations, and they are in process of being removed from our pages (see Wikiquote:Limits on quotations); but if you can provide a reliable, precise and verifiable source for any quote on this list please move it to André Gide. --Antiquary 18:34, 26 August 2009 (UTC)

• A straight path never leads anywhere except to the objective.

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

• At times is it seems that I am living my life backward, and that at the approach of old age my real youth will begin. My soul was born covered with wrinkles— wrinkles that my ancestors and parents most assiduously put there and that I had the greatest trouble removing.

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

• Complete possession is proved only by giving. All you are unable to give possesses you.

• Dare to be yourself.

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

• 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 to life under a sting even better than under a caress.

• In hell there is no other punishment than to begin over and over again the tasks left unfinished in your lifetime.

• It is better to be hated for what you are than loved for what you are not. [I have added a sourced quote for this one. Please have a look and, if appropriate, remove this talk page entry. Szarka (talk) 00:28, 5 November 2016 (UTC)]

• 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.

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

• It is not always by plugging away at a difficulty and sticking to it that one overcomes it; often it is by working on the one next to it. Some things and some people have to be approached obliquely, at an angle.

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

• Je crois que les sentiments authentiques sont extrêmement rares et que l'immense majorité des êtres humains se contentent de sentiments de convention qu'ils s'imaginent réellement éprouver.
  • Source: Le Petit Robert (2006); under definition of the "authentique" term.
    • For the sake of it please do rephrase that one, but here for reference is the "Google Translate" output:
    • "I believe that genuine feelings are extremely rare and that the vast majority of human beings content themselves with feelings of convention which they imagine themselves to actually feel."

• Know thyself! A maxim as pernicious as it is ugly. Whoever observes himself arrests his own development. A caterpillar who wanted to know itself well would never become a butterfly.

• Most quarrels amplify a misunderstanding.

• Nothing is so silly as the expression of a man who is being complimented.

• Obtain from yourself all that makes complaining useless. No longer implore from others what you yourself can obtain.

• One doesn't discover new lands without consenting to lose sight of the shore for a very long time.

• Perverting the young! As if initiation in sexual pleasure was in itself an act of perversion! In general it is quite the opposite!'

• So long as we live among men, let us cherish humanity.

• "The dogs bark but the caravan rolls on" (in response to critics)

• The most beautiful things are those that madness prompts and reason writes.
  • variant: Only those things are beautiful which are inspired by madness and written by reason.

• The most gifted natures are perhaps also the most trembling.

• The most important things to say are those which often I did not think necessary for me to say— because they were too obvious.

I moved this to the sourced journal entries on the main page - http://books.google.com/books?id=6B9JrZU1a1gC&pg=PA387&dq=%22The+most+important+things+to+say+are+those%22&hl=en&ei=uDqPTtSREYy4tgfAouibDA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=2&ved=0CDIQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=%22The%20most%20important%20things%20to%20say%20are%20those%22&f=false

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

• There are admirable potentialities in every human being. Believe in your strength and your youth. Learn to repeat endlessly to yourself, 'It all depends on me'.

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

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

• "Therefore" is a word the poet must not know.

• 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.

• 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.

• To what a degree the same past can leave different marks— and especially admit of different interpretations.

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

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

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

• Victor Hugo, hélas
  • In response to the question, "Who is the greatest French poet?"

• If a young writer can refrain from writing, he shouldn't hesitate to do so.
  • In response to the question, "What is your advice to young writers?"

Work in progress

• M’est avis...que le profit n’est pas toujours ce qui méne l’homme; qu’il y a des actions dèsintèressèes...Par dèsintèressè j’entends: gratuit. Et que le mal, ce que l’on appelle: le mal, peut être aussi gratuit que le bien.
  • ?
  • Les Caves du Vatican (1914), bk. 4, ch. 7

• Hugo—hèlas!
  • Hugo—alas!
  • Quoted in Claude Martin, La Maturitè d’Andrè Gide (1977), p. 502