“True kindness presupposes the faculty of imagining as one's own the suffering and joys of others.”

— André Gide, Portraits and Aphorisms (1903), Pretexts

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.”

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

“Turn your wounds into wisdom.”

“All becoming and growing—all that guarantees a future—involves pain.”

“It is better 100 guilty Persons should escape than that one innocent Person should suffer.”

“The superior man thinks of virtue; the small man thinks of comfort.”

“A wise man will not leave the right to the mercy of chance, nor wish it to prevail through the power of the majority.”

“Let us forget and forgive injuries.”