“Be faithful to that which exists nowhere but in yourself — and thus make yourself indispensable.”

— André Gide, Les Nourritures Terrestres (1897), Envoi

About André Gide

1869 – 1951

French writer, Nobel laureate in Literature (1947).

“We call "happiness" a certain set of circumstances that makes joy possible.”

“At times it seems to me that I am living my life backwards, and that at the approach of old age my real youth will begin.”

“Sin is whatever obscures the soul.”

“It was for this that I've been training myself, it was for this that I was practising.”

“For freedom is not acquired by satisfying yourself with what you desire, but by destroying your desire.”

“Ask yourself at every moment, "Is this necessary?"”

“A little flesh, a little breath, and a Reason to rule all—that is myself.”

“Up! mind thine own aim, and God speed the mark!”

“It may be called the Master Passion—the hunger for Self-Approval.”