Journals 1889-1949 Quotes

“The truth is that as soon as we are no longer obliged to earn our living, we no longer know what to do with our life and recklessly squander it.”
― André Gide, Journals 1889-1949

“The most important things to say are those which often I did not think necessary for me to say — because they were too obvious.”
― André Gide, Journals 1889-1949

“il nous change, il modifie la marche de notre vie." /
"it changes us, it alters the course of our lives.”
― André Gide, Journals 1889-1949

“Do not pose in your own presence. Id est: do not affect the qualities and virtues you would like to have but have not.”
― André Gide, Journals 1889-1949

“I let the most antagonistic proposals of my nature gradually come to agreement without violence. Suppressing the dialogue in oneself really amounts to stopping the development of life. Everything leads to harmony. The fiercer and more persistant the discord had been, the broader reconciliations blossoms.”
― André Gide, Journals 1889-1949

“The only drama that really interests me and that I should always be willing to depict anew, is the debate of the individual with whatever keeps him from being authentic, with whatever is opposed to his integrity, to his integration. Most often the obstacle is within him. And all the rest is merely accidental.”
― André Gide, Journals 1889-1949

“Nothing is consistent, nothing is fixed or certain, in my life. By turns I resemble and differ; there is no living creature so foreign to me that I cannot be sure of approaching. I do not yet know, at the age of 36, whether I am miserly or prodigal, temperate or greedy ... or
rather, being suddenly carried from one to the other extreme, in this very balancing I feel that my fate is being carried out. Why should I attempt to form, by artificially imitating myself, the artificial unity of my life? Only in movement can I find my equilibrium.”
― André Gide, Journals 1889-1949

“Take upon oneself as much humanity as possible. There is the correct formula.”
― André Gide, Journals 1889-1949

“Truth can be told to all; the idea, in proportion to the strength of each.”
― André Gide, Journals 1889-1949

“I always see, almost simultaneously, the two sides of each idea, and the emotion is always polarized in me.”
― André Gide, Journals 1889-1949

“Every judgment bears within it the testimony of our weakness. In my case, the judgments I have to make sometimes about things are as irresolute as the emotions that those things arouse. This explains that boundless uncertainty which upsets my acts when they must be based on a judgment.”
― André Gide, Journals 1889-1949

“I am anxious to know what I shall be; I do not even know what I want to be, but I do know that I must choose. I should like to progress on safe and sure roads that lead only to the point where I have decided to go. But I don't know; I don't know what I ought to want. I am aware of a thousand possibilities in me, but I cannot resign myself to want to be only one of them. And every moment, at every word I write at each gesture I make, I am terrified at the thought that this is one more ineradicable feature of my physiognomy becoming fixed: a hesitant, impersonal physiognomy, an amorphous physiognomy, since I have not
been capable of choosing and tracing its contours confidently.”
― André Gide, Journals 1889-1949

“Veo peor y se me cansan más deprisa los ojos. También oigo peor. Me digo que sin duda no es malo que se aleje así de nosotros, progresivamente, una tierra que de lo contrario nos costaría demasiado dejar; que nos costaría demasiado dejar de golpe. Lo admirable sería, al mismo tiempo, acercarse progresivamente a… otra cosa.”
― André Gide, Diario

“Al salir, veo en el pequeño patio delante de la casita dos niños de cuatro a cinco años con una mujer; su madre, evidentemente, a la que saludo. El niño y la niña llevan sendas hojas de cuarentena. El niño me señala con el dedo y repite dirigiéndose a la mujer, varias veces, como hacen los niños cuando quieren que se los escuche: –¡Tiene pies! Tiene pies… Era tan extraño que pregunto a la mujer: –¿Qué dice? Ella, a su vez, me repite la frase. –Pero tú también tienes pies –le digo al pequeño acariciándole la mejilla–. No querrás que yo no los tenga… –Ah, pero es que su padre no tiene más que uno –replica la mujer. […]”
― André Gide, Diario

“Lo propio de un alma cristiana es imaginar batallas en uno; al cabo de poco tiempo no comprende uno muy bien por qué… Pues, en definitiva, sea quien sea el vencido, es siempre una parte de uno mismo; y es ésa una usura inútil. Me he pasado la juventud oponiendo en mí dos partes de mí, que quizá no pedían otra cosa que entenderse. Por amor al combate, imaginaba luchas y dividía mi naturaleza.”
― André Gide, Diario

“Leo demasiado; todo eso fermenta.”
― André Gide, Diario

“Wat ik 'vermoeidheid' noem is ouderdom, en daarvoor bestaat geen rust behalve de dood.
Wat is het ergst van al dit 'slecht want strijdig met de natuur'? Jong zijn en je genot ontzeggen of oud zijn en het nog steeds zoeken? Er zijn zekere geneugten van het vlees die het ouder wordende lichaam steeds vergeefser najaagt als het er zich in zijn jeugd niet aan bedronken heeft. Te kuise jongelingsjaren leiden tot liederlijke ouderdom. Het is waarschijnlijk gemakkelijker af te zien van wat men heeft gekend dan van datgene waarover men fantaseert. Men heeft hierin geen spijt van wat men heeft gedaan, maar van wat men niet heeft gedaan en zou hebben kunnen doen. En die spijt krijgt dan zelfs de donkere kleur van wroeging.
Ik heb het gevoel dat ik ook hierin het meest tot onthouding gebracht word door redenen van esthetische aard. Oude handen verdorren wat zij strelen, dunkt me, maar ze hebben hun eigen schoonheid wanneer ze zich vouwen in gebed. Jonge handen zijn gemaakt voor liefkozingen en de mantel der liefde, het is jammer ze te vroeg samen te vouwen. Ja, die in gebed gevouwen handen verzinnebeelden fraai de mystieke omhelzing van het ongrijpbare, als de verliefde armen in het luchtledige grijpen omdat de realiteit ontglipt en er niemand is.”
― André Gide, Journals 1889-1949