Art begins with resistance – at the point where resistance is overcome. No human masterpiece has ever been created without great labor. – Andre Gide
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. – Andre Gide
The young people who come to me in the hope of hearing me utter a few memorable maxims are quite disappointed. Aphorisms are not my forte, I say nothing but banalities…. I listen to them and they go away delighted. – Andre Gide
Through loyalty to the past, our mind refuses to realize that tomorrows joy is possible only if todays makes way for it that each wave owes the beauty of its line only to the withdrawal of the preceding one. – Andre Gide